Dear God/ess, Today I just have to write about the wonders and the utter joy of bread making.

The other day, I made the best bread I ever made in my life, and I’ve been making bread since 1970–that’s 40 years!

I make bread the old fashioned way: I knead it with my hands a total of three separate times. The I let it rise a fourth time in the bread pans for a brief period, taking care that the bread dough does not rise over the top of the pans.

I use spelt flour as a base and this time I added 25% rye flour.

The next time I make bread, I intend to add gound up sesame seeds.

This is what I do: In a bowl, add 1 tsp fresh yeast in say 1/2 cup of warm water. Add a splash of Agave Sweetener, 1 tsp salt, a splash of oil, 1/2 cup or so of milk.

Allow this mixture to sit until the yeast begins to bubble.

Then in a large roasting pan, put in 6 cups of lukewarm water.

Add the yeast mixture.

Then dump in the flour and keep adding until it is kneadable.

Knead until it is wonderfully pliable and no longer sticking to your hands.

Put oil at the bottom of the pan , allowing the dough to rise on that oiled surface.

Let rise 1 hour.

Punch it down, and allow to rise again for 1 hour.

Punch it down, and allow to rise again for 1 hour.

Spray organic Pam in 5 bread pans and divide the dough into 5 parts, placing carefully in each pan.

Let this rise briefly.

Sprinkle olive oil over the top of each loaf.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour.

This is bread that makes people happy, even people who think they don’t like bread!

Bread like this is the ultimate food. It is a real blessing to watch people smile as they eat it!

Om, Peace, Amen

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But in this evening’s blog post by Sheila, she elaborates on what she was talking about on Tuesday’s show.

She said that addicts have come to this lifetime to teach everyone in their lives how to have compassion. It really is a wonderful post! Read it on her blog, Astrology’s Astrologer.

I was struck by the Gary Zukov quote, “Addiction is the highest form of spirituality.”

Many of us did drugs in the 1960’s to find God. Many of us had major religious/spiritual experiences that we never could put into words.

My generation changed the world with our music and expanded consciousness. But when we came back to earth, many of us found that that we were addicted to alcohol and other drugs.

The greatest form of spiritual insight is the recovery literature written by Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith. It is Spiritualist in nature, like something Catherine Ponder, for instance, used to write. Turning Spirits To Spirit is one of the most exciting kind of alchemy, especially if you are the one experiencing it.

So I am glad to be a recovering alcoholic. Transforming addiction to a high form of spiritual insight is the gift of a lifetime, better than any drug or any alcohol drink known to human kind.

We may have done drugs, first of all, to feel good, to find God, to elevate consciousness. But after dealing with denial for years and finally realizing that real life exists on the other side of the wall is the kind of spiritual awakening Bill Wilson always wrote about.

It makes it all worthwhile.

Om, Peace, Amen

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The tree that speaks to me everyday, actually a pair of trees, resides on the bank of the Conestoga River that flows by my house. These are brown locusts, one pictured here, and they are mighty, quiet beings who always, always have my attention.

We built a cement stairway to the river between these two trees. A huge Groundhog hole exists beside the one tree. What an underground home she must have intertwined with that intricate and ancient root system!

I can see these trees out of every window in the house and out the wall of windows in the nearly finished renovated barn room which will soon be a strategic part of the Blue Heron Farm Spiritual Retreat Center.

I went out this morning to take a picture of the Brown Locust and across the river saw a herd of deer run at full speed back and forth on the expansive flood plane there.

I began to think, then, that nature in this way offers us multiple signs of destiny and purpose everyday. Our job is to get out in nature and learn to recognize these signs. We learn to align ourselves with these while perceiving the luminous world of energy and spirit that resounds through us, around us and in us as we witness these beautiful nature creations.

Standing in the presence of the Brown Locust and the beautiful Conestoga River awakens a joyful expression and communication with the seen and unseen worlds. I feel as if this tree is the greatest healer of all because she literally extracts intrusive energy and emotion from my psyche every time I stand in her awesome presence.

The tree allows me to walk through life with protection and light, bringing peace and beauty to everyone I meet today, and everyday.

Om, Peace, Amen

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The tree lives near Charlestown. That is as close to Charlestown as we are likely to get, because once we get to the tree, she will command our mindful presence, perhaps an hour long meditation.

The Angel Oak, pictured here, is 65 feet high and 25.5 feet around. She gives 17,000 square feet of shade. Her largest limb is 11.5 feet long with a circumference of 89 feet.

Now THIS is a tree with presence, an awakened soul. She is 1500 years old, reportedly the oldest living entity east of the Rocky Mountains. The oldest California Redwood is 2200 years young.

An old growth tree is one of the most precious living things to behold on this green earth. I used to work for the US Forest Service in Northern California in the early 1980’s and paused in wonder upon arriving to an old growth forest. These trees were in constant danger of being clear cut or destroyed by raging forest fire.

Old growth trees speak to us. They resonate a profound sense of root groundedness and also an alignment with heavenly influence. Coming away, we feel a deep sense of balance. We live in the Present Moment with the tree with a full realization that she has witnessed human celebration, tragedy, and floods, earthquakes and other natural catastrophe.

These trees are witness to earthly events but also to celestial magic, angelic protection, and the fairy, wind and gnome beings who industriously work on behalf of these trees to promote long, long life and a prosperity beyond comprehension.

Om, Peace, Amen

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The card for today’s prayer reading is: Remember Who You Are. Archangel Michael says: “You are a powerful, loving and creative child of God. You are very loved.”

Alcoholic’s Anonymous always stresses to the sober (and non-sober) alcoholic that we are all God’s kids.

One of the thing I loved about the meetings is that you could be sitting beside a Doctor or Lawyer on one side of you, and a hardened criminal, a murderer even, on the other side. We were all on a level playing field. No class. No elitism. No one-up-man-ship. Just Recovering Alcoholics, trudging the road of happy destiny, said Bill W., intent on a spiritual sobriety that included all who joined us there in the rooms (of AA).

And the longer we all went without a drink, the happier we were. Yes, life still hands us challenges. Yes, sometimes these challenges make it difficult not to pick up a drink. Or not. The beauty is, everything is funny the longer you succeed in replacing Spirits with Spirit. The Comedy and Tragedy of life take on a meaningful significance.

Alcoholics Anonymous teaches us to revel in the love of our Higher Power and Spirit Guides and all of the angels and unseen energies that really do take care of us.

A woman I know has been struggling with her sister who is drinking herself to death. I said to her, “Don’t worry, God takes care of babies and drunks.” But we all know people who die of alcoholism, so I said those words carefully.

So this prayer is for my friend’s sister and for all the people who concern us because of their alcoholism or drug addiction.

They need to know that they are loved and they deserve all the love in the hearts of those who help them.

My friend’s sister is one of God’s kids. She needs to feel this from all of us reading this prayer today.

Om, Peace, Amen

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It is: Pray To Heal. This phrase does capture the real name of this blog.

The whole of life is about recovery, healing and giving back what we learn when we heal.

We certainly heal when we pray, so it makes sense that we pray in order to heal.

Prayer is an act of doing. It is an action step. I used to think it was a passive activity and one does need quiet and a slowing down in order to feel as if the prayer has been effective: That it has gone out from the heart to lovingly caress all those who are receptive to the energy, and even those who are not.

Some people think prayer is Christian Dogma but I know that by practicing it, that it is not.

Prayer is Universal Language. It is the language of Love and Forgiveness. Prayers from all religions or spiritual traditions have the same calming and peaceful intention: to heal, be healed and to impart healing vibrations to all the Cosmos.

Plants, animals and babies respond to prayer. So do trees. So do falling leaves.

When one or more gather together to pray, miracles happen. Great peace accelerates the beauty of the present moment and we feel alive.

Nothing is impossible in the presence of the Power of a Prayer to Heal.

Om, Peace, Amen

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But I am having a conversation with all of you, too, and I don’t want to give that up. Everyday, i am forced to go a little deeper into the mind, no mind, thought, no thought.

Mind is the vehicle through which Self-Realization is possible.

Who am I? I am that which existed before my parents were born, before I was born.

Who am I? I am that which presently exists, unchangeable and eternal.

Who am i? I am my mind, no mind, pure but not newly created, nor does it perish when I die.

My mind is neither male or female, right or left, up or down.

Is who I am simply a bunch of memories, thoughts and mental images? If yes, then who I am does not exist.

If who I am does not exist, then I was never born nor will I ever die.

Who I am has no limits.

It is time to relax into this boundary-less state. It is time to give up all the stories of my existence, and of yours, too.

It is time to relax into the not knowing of me or of you. No more assumptions. No more elaborate judgments or rigid pretenses.

It is simply time to be what I am: the unconditional essence of peace and safety and boundless joy.

Om, Peace, Amen.

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This is great news! Right now, we are renovating a room in the barn and are next planning to work on the kitchen and living room, as well as do a major de-cluttering effort.

Dr. Leonard Laskow, author of “Healing With Love,” will help us officially open our retreat center when he holds a three day “Opening Your Heart To Oneness” workshop the first or second weekend of August, date to be announced.

I had one of those moments of illumination when I took a Macrobiotic cooking class in 1994, several weeks after Tom had a heart attack. At the counter of the store was a brochure describing a workshop Leonard Laskow was giving later that month. In it were a few sentences saying that it is much easier to love than it is to resist love.

Fighting and resistance result in tension and nonacceptance of “what is.” The moment we accept “what is,” all the struggle ceases.

Love exists in a reality that cannot co-exist with struggle, resistance or fear.

The work of Len Laskow was and is a direct experience of this phenomenon. I remember when I took the introductory workshop, the plants were pulsating with light energy.

Illumination, Awareness, Presence.

The real meaning of love and healing with love is the discarding of all that has gone before. Laying everything down, you will know Love. Fighting, resisting, tension, stress is released to the ethers.

When Love awakens within you, you will see Love wherever you look. Love is all you will see.

Om, Peace, Amen

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Astrologer’s Astrologer, Sheila Audet, in her last blog post, wrote about this, too.

Illumination. Presence. Awakening.

Suddenly, the moment enlarges to include all of eternity. The light brightens and all people are suddenly seen without judgment.

This happened to me for the first time after my mother died. My husband Tom, and brother Delaney and I were with her when she passed. Suddenly it seemed as if I was “seeing” for the first time. The light had a glow, the energy of every living being was brilliant. I truly knew what unconditional love really meant.

I can bring up this feeling at will at any time. Meditation helps, too.

Often these experiences happen to people in the most mundane moments. I’ve heard it described as a luminosity, a pulsating energy, an experience of feeling and seeing light waves.

This may sound like an hallucinogenic drug experience. Maybe a flashback. That’s what the skeptics say.

Mystical sight can arise at anytime to anyone. When this altered perception arises, you are never the same again.

Illumination is always happening. You can choose to slow down and see it. Mostly you choose not to. You can act like everything is a miracle or as if nothing is a miracle, as Albert Einstein said. Unfortunately, when we enter the work place, or place of business, we don’t talk about these things. We mask our true feelings.

We die a little death.

I’ve made a decision to see the luminosity, the pulsation, the magic, the miracle.

Om, Peace, Amen.

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Where is God/ess in all of this?

Laughter is one of the greatest releases because suddenly the energy makes the energy of the person doing the laughing a magnificent, beautiful Being.

Is God/ess in the laughter?

Today I plan to get some great Physical Therapy massage for my neck, which is now loosening up after 20 years of stiffness.

Is God/ess in the Physical Therapist?

Pain is instructive and can teach us to look closely, Be closely with the pain in order to move past it.

Is God/ess also in the pain?

BG talks often about her beloved prisoners at the prison where she works with Guru Prison Kitty. She describes how the prisoners pause to stroke Guru Kitty on the way to receive medication or perhaps, therapy.

Is God/ess in the Prisoner and the Prison and also in Guru Kitty?

We think God/ess is in everything. We think that God/ess, while Nameless, is hidden somewhere outside of ourselves, flowing in the Wind, in the Robin Redbreast, in the Cardinal I see outside my window.

But God/ess in not “in” any of these.

God/ess IS all of this.

Om, Peace, Amen

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