Ask Your Mama
by Mama Donna Hennes, Urban Shaman
Are you cyclically confused? In a ceremonial quandary? Completely clueless? Wonder no more.
*Ask Your Mama™
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Spirituality and Didn’t Know Who to Ask™
by
©Mama Donna Henes, Urban Shaman
A Question of Connection
Dear Mama Donna,
It's so important that we all work together in cooperation.
Unfortunately, most people don't realize that we're all connected.
They live their lives thinking they're completely separate. So how do we get everyone to realize that we are a whole?
Looking for Unity in Ashville
We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Dear Looking,
Well, that IS the question. Basically, we keep talking. To everyone we know and everyone we encounter in the normal course of our lives. We take every opportunity to keep pointing out our connections and our mutual interdependence.
Just by virtue of your having written this letter, you have touched who knows how many people. Granted, most people who will be reading this already understand the complex web of life and relationship. However, we all need reminding from time to time. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads…our actions run as causes and return
to us as results.
—Herman Melville
We also need to make it our business to point out the frightening ramifications of breaking the bonds that bind us, and to suggest positive alternatives to destructive or divisive behavior. It is especially important to talk with people who you think might relate to these ideas. You never know.
When I was in Florida recently, I asked a retired gentleman, a refugee from the north, just why there were no solar panels anywhere with all the new development going on. And you know what? He agreed with me. While this is something that he never noticed or thought about before, it immediately struck him as true and important. And then he, too, wanted to know why not. Hey, maybe he’ll write a letter to the editor.
Lately, when I buy stamps at the post office, I refuse the flag ones that they are always trying to palm off on me instead of the pretty flowers and such. Each time, I announce in a loud voice, “No thank you. I refuse to fly the flag until this war is over.” And it never fails to elicit a chorus of “Uh huhs” from the folks on line and an “I hear you, sister” from the clerk.
These are very small gestures. Tiny. Miniscule. But they serve as cause for thought and invitations for interaction. Each one, one more strand woven into the web that reaches around the world and connects us all at our cosmic center.
Keep looking. Unity is already here, everywhere, all the time. And unity creates more unity. Let us celebrate it every chance we get.
xxMama Donna
No one can deny that a network (a world network)
of economic and psychic affiliations is being woven
at ever increasing speed which envelops and constantly penetrates more deeply within each of us. With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible for us to act or think otherwise than collectively."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
From The Formation of the Noosphere, 1947
Dear Mama Donna,
I applaud your call to others to make connections and make friends. There are so many of us wanting the same things and it's a matter of simply being aware of each other's presence. We need to introduce ourselves and share where we come from. May I recommend a website to visit? www.vov.com. If that's not correct, please look up Victory Over Violence on the internet. This program renews the practice of peace in everyday situations. It is non-sectarian but based in Buddhist principles. We need this interfaith-interaction now more than ever.
For Peace, Rhode Island
Dear Peace,
You are right. We do need programs of all descriptions that facilitate cooperation, understanding, compassion, and community. Thanks for sharing this information.
Also, for peace,
xxMama Donna
A person who believes…that there is a whole of which one is part, and that in being a part, one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.
-Ursula K. LeGuin
*Are you cyclically confused? In a ceremonial quandary? Completely clueless? Wonder no more. *Send your questions about seasons, cycles, celebrations, ceremonies and spirit to Mama Donna at: CityShaman@aol.com
*************************************************************
Donna Henes is an internationally renowned urban shaman, ritual expert, award-winning author, popular speaker and workshop leader whose joyful celebrations of celestial events have introduced ancient traditional rituals and contemporary ceremonies to millions of people in more than 100 cities since 1972. She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed Ezine and writes for The Huffington Post, Beliefnet and UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy in Exotic Brooklyn, NY where she offers intuitive tarot readings and spiritual counseling and works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.
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