Wordy Wednesday 3: Victim

It might interest you to know that the word victim comes from the Latin word victima which means victim, sin offering, sacrifice. In Websters 7th New Collegiate Dictionary, it means:

1. a living being sacrificed to a deity or in the performance of a religious rite
2. someone injured, destroyed, or sacrificed under any of various conditions
3. someone tricked or duped

But it might interest you more to know that it isn't in the Bible. No-where in the Bible is the word victim mentioned. There are a lot of different kinds of people and situations talked about in the Bible, the Bible is a pretty big book (just in case you didn't notice), and they (victims) aren't even mentioned! As soon as I realized this I said, "Whaaaaaa??? For real?"

Now, while I don't believe the Bible is the end all of everything, but I do know it is a pretty important book Full of wisdom. So...if a word isn't even mentioned in it......that means something to me.

But, what?

Someone said, "There are no victims, only volunteers."

Is this "the proof" that that statement is true??

What do you think of the concept that we come to Life to learn different things? To have a variety of experiences? To understand Who or What I Am is through those experiences?

So, if there are no victims, does that mean we are participants? Even in the most horrid things that happen?

I curious, what do you think?

~magick~
Meliss

Wordy Wednesday 2: Living Through The Plains

“Living through the plains” means realizing that Life isn’t some constant party where the clean up time never arrives, where we are constantly surrounded by loved ones who act perfectly nice all the time, where the music never stops playing and no matter what it is, it’s your favorite song, and where we look amazing although we haven’t looked in the mirror for hours because we’ve been too busy dancing. Oh, and we can eat and drink whatever we want because we’ll never gain any weight from it nor be sick in any way!

It’s realizing that Life is work, Life is boring, Life is lonely, Life is un-fulfilling, Life is tiring, and Life is really sucky sometimes, but mostly, it’s ordinary, Life is just ordinary. It isn’t TV or the movies or books. Those are entertainment. Life is not entertainment, it is a state of being.

But thankfully, “living through the plains” is also realizing that Life is a wonderfully amazing experience where we can still be blissful and not have to be a Kardashian.

Most days it’s just me and the cats and the trees and the birds and the squirrels and the chipmunks and the art. And somehow, amazingly enough, I am able to create a meaningful day for myself without a flourish of trumpets or cheers. That’s not always easy, especially when our society constantly bombards us with the idea that,“If you aren’t BIG, you aren’t important. If you aren’t KNOWN, you aren’t needed. If you aren’t POPULAR, YOU ARE NOBODY!” We are constantly looking toward other people to pay more and more attention to us while we pay less and less attention to ourselves because we’re too busy trying to get the attention of said other people.

To own the plain’ness of your life is more of a triumph than to live some public existence. The courage it takes to live a small life and find meaning in it will probably only ever be rewarded by you and the life itself.

Okay, let’s get into Webster’s 7th New Collegiate Dictionary and break it down-

Plain: noun : from Latin planus - flat or level: treeless country, a broad unbroken expanse, something free from extraneous matter (coming from the outside and having no relevance), free of impediment to view, unobstructed, evident to the mind or sense, obvious, clear.

That means a place with no shade from the scorching sun, nowhere to hide from anything or anyone, nothing to distract you or to call attention away from yourself....it’s just You and your life.

Some would call this hell. What they are actually saying is that spending time with their Self is unpleasant and not just unpleasant, but torturous and vile. Seriously?

Some would say, “I would go crazy.” Would you really? First of all, only people who think they aren’t crazy are actually crazy. Second, you may become disturbed at deep levels because you aren’t used to actually dealing with your own feelings and thoughts, but there is tons of guidance available out there (see suggested reading).

‘The Plains’ are a good place to be. Any place that provides the opportunity to “come out into the open, which is the only place where you can meet God” to find out Who You Are is a good place. We have hidden ourselves away from ourselves for far too long. Cowering in the shadows. Afraid to claim our own ordinary, plain ‘ole self. (quote from The Awakened Heart Project)


Plain is related to another word that looks different, but we pronounce it the same.....

Plane: noun: from Latin planus - level (from diminutive of libra, weight, balance) 1 a: a surface of such nature that a straight line joining two of its points lies wholly in the surface - Plane applies to any real or imaginary flat surface in which a straight line between any two points on it lies continuously in it.

We are a line. When we are standing upright or lying down flat, our bodies create a line. Inside, there are two lines, that I can think of, that connect us together - one is the spine and the other is the line of the Chakra System. (Did you know that butterflies in your belly is really your third chakra tickling you and saying pay attention to me?) We can live wholly (and holy) if we are connected to our self by multiple points, such as heart and mind. We cannot live a balanced life if we are only connected to our mind nor only connected to our heart. Neither is very wise on its own, but together they can guide us well.

A plane is also (2) a level of existence, consciousness, or development.

There are many levels of awareness and of being’ness. Awake is one. Asleep is another. There are many more in-between and out-between (if that makes sense). Becoming more and more aware in our daily life is vital to self-development and to living the life we long to live. Why we do the things we do. Why our life is the way it is. Why when so and so does such and such we want to scream. These are all things we can ask ourselves while hanging out in ‘The Plaines.’ Many times we sabotage ourselves and don’t know why or even that we’re doing it because we’re so wrapped up in other things or people.

It’s easy when we think we’re paying attention (but in truth we probably aren’t) to get caught up in unnecessary drama. Many of our regrets are made up of times when we really weren’t connected with ourselves enough to be able to say, “Okay, what’s REALLY going on here and how do I want to respond to this situation?”

My friend Dee describes the levels of awareness like a tree. The higher up, the broader the view. Down on the ground you can only see so far, but high in the branches you can see for miles. Isn’t it funny then that there’s a kind of tree called the plane tree (Sycamore)? It’s also called Platanus which is akin to the Greek word platys which means broad. The dictionary indicated that there was “more {to be found} at {the word} Place.”

Place: noun: from feminine of platys - broad, flat; akin to Latin planta - sole of the foot. 1 a: a way for admission or transit

‘The Plains’ are your ticket into you, they are your way through the harshness of Life. They are a passage from one level to another. Wanna know how?

Plane: verb intransitive: from the plane formed by the wings of a soaring bird

Plane: 3 a: one of the main supporting surfaces of an airplane.

There are two main points here:

This balanced surface is necessary for flight. Flight will not only not happen without it, but more likely a crash will occur. It is up to us to maintain our own personal balance. (Although in my art I still believe one good wing is all we need ;)

Assistance will be provided to you. Even on ‘The Plains’ with no one else in sight, we are not left alone. A pilot has a guiding voice, watching out, watching over, telling them which direction to head, (as well as many unseen others working to help the plane arrive safely), but it’s up to them to fly the plane.

You know, an airplane is a great way to get from one place to another quickly, far above the surface level traffic where it’s just a bunch of time wasting red lights and honking horns. Up there, close to our maker, it’s quiet, peaceful, and so much easier to hear that still small voice saying to us, “Hineni.” *


Key points and reminders:

* Hineni (pronounced hee-nay-nee) is a Hebrew word that means “here I am” or “here I stand”. It is the answer to the deep calling from within (that which can be known as “God”) that says, “I am willing to do that which I am called to do. I am willing to face that which I am called to face. I know it will be labored AND painful, yet I am willing. I will feel emotions, yet I will not run. I will feel physical distress, yet I will not run. I will struggle to remain. But I will again respond with Hineni, Here I am and Here I stand until I am somewhere else, saying, ‘Hineni’.”

Don’t be afraid to spend time with you. You should be your own BFF.

Claiming yourself without reservation is a healing balm on your human spirit.

Consciousness is vital. What am I thinking about???? And what do I think about what I’m thinking about?

Many people have a case of the ‘I don’t matters’, especially artists. It’s a fact (yeah) that no matter how many trumpets you have blasting your every action, if you don’t have self-worth you have nothing. History has shown us how many have destroyed themselves simply because they couldn’t detect their own worth and value. Popularity has never saved anyone from death.

Being on top doesn’t matter - the reason is because there is no such thing as being on top. The good news is also bottom doesn’t exist.

On ‘The Plains’ you are free to be who you are, not who they want you to be. What a relief!

Honestly, it’s probably better that you’re not a Kardashian.....too many distractions, too many ropes pulling you in too many directions and most of them are attached to a tree at the other end waiting to hang you.

Mental and emotional stability (I’m not talking crazy or not crazy, I’m talking stable vs. not stable), which takes work (this is not something that is generally a natural gift for us all), is needed to pass through ‘The Plains’. It takes work to keep You in control of you. Many of us think we are in control of ourselves, but in reality it is our past that is controlling us. We are simply playing out roles that were handed to us by whoever was around us when we were young and impressionable.

“On the exterior, he (The Sage) lives simply, almost austerely (dry, unadorned, plain), but his inner world is filled to overflowing with richness.” (The Faeries’ Oracle - Froud and MacBeth) Your inner world is too.


Personal notes:

In the ‘plain’ life I live, my focus is on enjoyment. Did I enjoy my day? If not, why not? Is it wrong of me to focus on my own enjoyment? Is it selfish? Why? I deserve to enjoy my life. I was not put here to suffer...to learn, but not to suffer.

Entertainment to the hubby and I lately has been the hummingbirds and the baby racoons (aren’t they cute?). Nothing real fancy about that, but we’re there every night looking for them.

I battle against that voice that says I don’t matter. I don’t care about popularity, nor appreciation. I simply want to be a blessing. That is my goal. My ego cares, but I just don’t. Caring about that stuff has never gotten me anywhere good.

I am almost constantly catching myself doing stuff - going over old stories in my mind, telling someone off in my head after I already decided it wasn’t worth it to do so, being worried about something that I cannot change or control, muttering about petty annoyances, the list could go on.....but I catch myself and say, “Hey stop thinking about that” or “Get lost” or “There’s nothing I can do about that” and I return to the present moment. 3 minutes later I do the same thing over again. :)

Suggested reading list:

Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore
stories by Paulo Coelho, especially Veronica Decides to Die and The Alchemist
many kinds of oracle cards are helpful as well, I’ve used The Faeries’ Oracle by Froud and MacBeth for years
The Sevenfold Journey by Anodea Judith and Selene Vega
Iyanla Vanzant!! In the Meantime, Yesterday I Cried
SARK’s early works

~Thanks for taking this journey with me and I hope it blesses you~
Meliss

Wordy Wednesday 1: Accomplish

It feels like there are so many things to do. I feel pulled in many, many directions. Which way? Do, do, do - which ‘thing’ do I do? Go, go, go - which way do I go? ACCOMPLISH!! I feel, actually physically feel the PRESSURE (Isn’t it strange that we can physically feel an emotional/mental state of mind? We are multi-dimensionally experiencing machines.) I sometimes can’t figure out what to do - yard work, art, housework? Well, if I choose the yard, the next question becomes this....what do I do in the yard? THE WEEDS? What a daunting task that is! (My secret weapon against weeds is a nice drink of white vinegar on a hot day - the acid kills them dead, but don’t get it on your plants, it’ll kill them too.) Then the excuses roll in...it’s too hot, I don’t have any vinegar, it’s not sunny, etc. etc. Okay, so say I go with art - man, that’s the worst one to pick, there are so so many ‘things’ to do there...paintings to paint, the la-boratory to work on as always, videos to do, stories to write, pictures to take, blah, blah, blah - a mountain of projects that seems to always be growing, twisting it’s way so it hangs directly over my head. Finally, because I’ve already shot down two ideas, a really mousey voice comes out and says, “uh, how about house-work????” That actually sounds better than the other two choices right now - dishes, here I come. So, while doing the mindless work of the house, my mind gets bored and begins a conversation with its-self.

There’s so many things to do outside...the sticker bushes are taking over...there’s stuff I still haven’t planted yet and it’s June! I gotta do that....yeah, gotta do that.....and then there’s those two hills that are covered in weeds. Yeah, but what about the house? I need to finish painting the trim while the weather is nice, then I gotta paint the bathrooms, the kitchen cabinets....UGH! (feeling overwhelmed) I’ll never get it all done!! But I need to get it all done....right now so the yard and house can be nice and I can feel okay!!

That’s when I catch myself, when I realize that I’m freaking out, almost unconsciously. I take a deep breath and begin to have a more rational conversation with me. My friend Dee’s wise words about gardening come in handy. “It’ll take you 10 years to get it how you want it.” We’ve lived here almost 4 years and in that time there’s lots of projects we’ve done, lots of things we’ve changed. We built a path around the side of the house to the woods outback, put in an herb garden (which as this point is more like a lemon balm garden - that stuff is gonna take over the world), added another small garden with a trellis built from wood we found in the woods, covered the weed infested area out front around the lilies with homemade mulch from our wood chipper, and made a fire pit.

There have also been other projects that didn’t work out or we just couldn’t keep up with (3.5 acres is a lot, especially when you lived in an apartment before that) - for example: the trails we raked in the woods which are now totally covered by leaves again. It just didn’t make sense to keep up, we were way too scared of getting ticks to actually walk back there, but don’t want to spray ourselves with poison just to walk in the woods (seems ironic - walk in woods, healthy, poison, unhealthy). So, chalk that up to live and learn. The hubby always says, “Oooohhh, why can’t we learn it, why do we have to live it?”

As easy as these projects may seem, they’re hard work, they take lots of elbow grease and time, always much more time than we think they will. So, my friend’s words comfort me and return me to Earth, make me remember that everything takes time. That’s how it is. That’s how it’s meant to be - seed, time, harvest. The time comes in between the beginning and the end. The time isn’t important, it’s what we fill it with. Patience is required for a pleasant journey here on Earth. There are infinite opportunities to grow our ability to wait. That is directly related to how we wait, in other words how we feel while we’re waiting and how we act while we’re waiting (but don’t expect to wait well every time, we’re all allowed to be crabby on occasion). I have found that we can get ourselves into a fair amount of trouble by not waiting to have some “thing”, do some “thing”, be some “thing” - financial trouble, physical trouble, mental/emotional trouble....and for what? ACCOMPLISHMENT. Because that really means something...to have, to do, to be. That means you’re Accomplished. That means you’re somebody.....right???

Perhaps.

Let’s dig up it’s roots and have a look-see with my 1969 Webster’s dictionary....1969 was before they started modernizing everything.

The word accomplishment is from the Latin ad - which means to or towards combined with the Latin complere - which means to fill up, complete.

There it is! That’s the whole problem! Did you catch it?

We look to accomplishment to fill up. To fill up what? To fill up time, to fill up space (Is it true that our bodies are full of space? I heard that somewhere.). Accomplishments provide meaning where otherwise there wouldn’t be any. Without doing something that society would approve of we have no meaning. Really? No, not really...that’s just a lie someone told us and many of us keep spreading it around, like a rumor, in order to keep the mouse wheel turning (the hubby would probably blame the rich people for this - they need us little people to keep their lifestyle).

Here’s a good question to start with: Are we full or are we empty? What is your underlying belief about yourself?

I believe we arrive full and complete to our Earth experience, needing nothing, but perhaps believing we do (that’s part of how Life is experienced - see suggested reading *). So, how can I fill up something that is already full? The answer is that I can’t. I can try to trade some of what’s already in there for what I want to put in - perhaps that’s where many of us go wrong. We replace what we were innately born with, with what the world provides. It’s like trading veggies and fruits for empty, sugary calories. Most people are actively doing that right now. What would make us want to trade the glorious treasures we posses inside for the fanfare of this world? (mainly love because we were in some way damaged in our past and have not healed our wounds -also acceptance, approval, money, power, material items, security, etc.)

When I try to fill up something that is already full with more, a pressure is created. Pressure is associated with accomplishment in our society. A coincidence? I think not. I believe this is one way the pressure we feel inside is created - I see it as a mental/emotional/physical manifestation of a physical/psychological/spiritual occurrence. Feeling empty is mostly just a lie we tell ourselves (it can also be a sign that something is “wrong” in your life - it takes emotional work to determine which is true for you).

We are constantly trying to validate our existence by doing something or being something more or other than what/who we are. The measurements we use come from outside “things” (actual things, people, money, popularity, comments, followers, visitors, stats, etc. - blogland is full of these traps). We are trained to use these measurements from the beginning from others who are using these measurements. It is only when we see that they hold no merit whatsoever that we are able to begin to break away.

The only, singular, and true measure of us is our own belief that WE (period). ARE (period). WORTHY (period). That is all. Everything else is malarkey. Inside we know this (you can lie to your outer self, but never to your inner self - it knows all). Maybe this is another place from which that pressure we feel arises - our own uncomfortable’ness with what we are doing.

If I never made another piece of art, I would still be a valid human soul, not an artist anymore, but being an artist doesn’t mean anything more than that. Artist is something I choose to do with my life. If I sat on the couch until I died, would I still be a valid human soul? Absolutely. Perhaps I wouldn’t have used my opportunity at “the game of Life” to the best of my ability, but still valid and worthy. Making art doesn’t make me better, it helps me feel better than if I hadn’t done anything at all. I’m here, I might as well do something instead of nothing. There is a balance between accomplishing for the sake of using and sharing our gifts, for the experience in Life, for the enjoyment it brings us and accomplishing in order to gain some kind of imaginary or real Earthy status. We all have things we need to accomplish for varied reasons. The hubby would lose his Earthy status with me if he stopped taking the trash out, but he’d still be valid as a spiritual being. Becoming aware of our motives for doing something - inner reason versus outer reason - can help us win any battles we face in this arena.


Personal notes:

I am constantly learning about this inner versus outer balance. It feels like a lesson I am constantly being exposed to and then promptly forgetting.

Does it really matter if I ever get rid of all those weeds? As far as who I am? No. In terms of my yard being beautiful to me? Yeah. So, that’s the difference. I deal with the weeds because I want to. (This is how you check your own motives - question Your Self.)

Having time to watch the birds or feel a warm breeze is important to me, so I need to figure nurturing things like into my day. I never want to live a life where it’s go, go, go constantly accomplishing tasks. That’s just not for me. No matter what I did in life, if I couldn’t watch a chipmunk eat for 2 minutes because I was too busy, I’d feel like I was missing out on something great.

I long to stop finding myself under the pressure of accomplishment. I long to stop putting myself there. I long to stop allowing the outside to change my mind or to alter my path, even if only momentarily. I long to know my path, to believe in my path, to know it is divinely ordered, and then to have the determination stick to it no matter what.


Reminders:

You are valid and worthy period regardless of what you accomplished or didn’t accomplish today. The sooner you believe that, the sooner you can stop fooling around with all this nonsense and be the awesome You that You are!

Seed, time, harvest - what are you filling the middle time with? Always do what you want to do with YOUR time. You can want to do the dishes, you know.

Set your own measurement for the word Accomplished. Define your life by your terms and by what’s important to you.

Ask yourself - why am I doing this? Make sure it’s YOU answering and not the pretend you.

Become aware of your mind chatter. Choose to have conscious, rational conversations with yourself instead of unconscious, unmonitored ranting sessions.

There will always be “wasted” or misspent time on projects that don’t work out. We can limit this by being thoughtful about our actions, but we cannot completely avoid it. My best advice - laugh at your own stupidity or at least laugh at your husband’s.

Joyce Meyer says, “Patience is a fruit of the spirit that is born only under trial.” Meaning: patience is only developed by having to wait.....so you might as well develop it because it is a fact that we will all wait (period).....sometimes for a really long time.

And by the way, I didn’t touch on this part of the word, but - Nothing, NOTHING (and no one) completes us! Please, PLEASE people, stop believing that other people or things complete you! We are works in process that are whole in every single moment of Now. How can something be in process and whole you ask? That is the wonder of Life - isn’t nothing still something?


Suggested reading:

* Conversations with God series by Neale Donald Walsch
SARK’s early works


I'd love to hear your thoughts - I'll leave the comment section open until my next post (Friday). I hope you make a really great day for yourself!

~magick~
Meliss

New blog feature: Wordy Wednesday

I love looking up words and finding out what they mean. The more I've done it, the more I've found myself surprised. Words don't always mean what we think they do. Over time our language has changed:

• We've made up new words for things that didn't exist before.
• We've decided words mean things that they never meant before.
• We've shortened things to make them faster because we're all so darn busy or it costs too much to fully say what we mean.

In other words, language is alive. It evolves as we evolve. Some-times that's good, some-times that's bad. In some cases we've grown and expanded ourselves. In some cases we've forgotten things that we, as a species, knew before. We've become distracted. And in some cases, we've actually "dumbed" things down for ourselves, which has really backfired on us because now our language has become watered down. I hate it when all the ice cubes melt in my drink and it tastes less like it's supposed to and more like Yuck! In our culture, it's all catch phrases and commercials and who owns the rights to them.

It's not all about definitions though. The roots of words are as important as their own particular meaning. The word or words a word was based upon contain secret codes that ancient places in us understand. We can forget, but we can't disregard where a word came from and pretend it holds no importance anymore because it's old. Newer isn't always better.

Last year I found a Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary from 1969 sitting outside my local library just waiting to be recycled. I scooped it up and took it home. It contains wonder for my brain and spiritual knowledge for my soul. In other words, I adore it! I recently bought a 1958 Britannica World Language Edition of Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary, letters A - P, from a yard sale. I also use Webster's World Thesaurus and a copy of The Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus.

At times, in order to fully understand a subject, I am lead to other books to research ideas and connections such as books about animals or the chakras, The Bible, etc. I go where I am lead and write down what I find in my journal. I call this studying and I credit this "studying" with much of what I understand and believe about Life. I hope to share that knowledge with you and that you may gain your own understandings and beliefs about Life or further root yourself in what you already know.

I don't usually allow comments (a personal preference), but I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have about the words, so I'll try to remember to allow comments on Wednesdays. If I forget and you'd really like to share something, please email me (amagickalmeliss AT yahoo DOT com).

Looking forward to seeing you every other Wednesday.

~magick~
Meliss