Ask Your Mama
by Mama Donna Henes, 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 Passion for Life
Dear Urban Provocateur/Shaman,
Is there really such a thing as a passion for living? Or is joy an idea promoted by the movies (or maybe you?) to offset the tragedies reported daily. I hear that water is being compromised with too much waste matter. I won't even go into the air quality, or quality of thought around the world. I am always dealing with matters of no intrinsic interest. Interruptions. Spent four hours traveling to and shopping at the super-market. I read your messages and realize I am certainly in need of spiritual guidance. Or do I just need household help, a carpenter, and a car and chauffeur?
A Starving Artist for Too Long in New Jersey
Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death. —Auntie Mame
Dear Starving,
Yes, yes, yes! I fervently believe that life is grand. And, besides, what is the alternative? That is not to say that life is easy. I was lucky, I guess. I was raised by the world's greatest pessimist, who certainly never told me that it was going to be easy. Consequently, I am never disappointed!
The trick, and again, it is not easy, is to concentrate on the positive rather than the negative. The best way to find joy is to seek it out in every aspect of your life. Look for only the good — in others, in
your self, in your home, in your family, in your work. By the Universe's own Law of Attraction, what you focus on will expand. The more you seek joy, the more of it you will have.
In a wide range of happiness studies conducted lately, including several with major lottery winners, it was clearly demonstrated that professional, educational, or financial success are not predictors of contentment. Nor are gender, age, race, religion, health, or ethnic background.
The key, common factors across the board that seem to determine satisfaction, peace of mind, and yes, happiness, are: optimism, self-confidence, self-control, connection to community, and a living sense of spirituality. And, I might add, the desire to be so.
Take me, for instance. I was the most miserable of children. Painfully shy, sadly confused, and badly bruised; constantly abused by great chilly blasts of debilitating negativity. All I ever wanted was to be happy. When an adult would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would — in my imagination where I dared — answer, “Happy.”
I hung hand lettered and illustrated affirmations (before there was a word for such things) all over my room: I WANT TO BE HAPPY. I WILL BE HAPPY. And then, when I was eighteen years old and living away from home for the first time, it suddenly, incredibly, indelibly occurred to me one marvelous morning that I could be anybody I wanted to be. I could be a happy person!
Happiness is fleeting (as is pain.) The trick is to court it. To recognize it — even in camouflage. To acknowledge its presence when and where we least expect it. To celebrate each second of the healing heart and soul of it. And to rejoice in our own exhilarating ability to create it for ourselves and others at any given moment, in any circumstance.
Our natural souls live in a state of eternal joy, of grace, of balance. And we, the human extension of our souls, are joy. You've just forgotten. Remember that you are a creative person. You are an artist, after all. You have the power and the talent to create a little excitement for your self. Some joie de vivre. Invent the life that you want. Paint it in wild colors.
Just keep breathing. Nothing ever stays the same forever, including being depressed.
Yours for love of life,
xxMama Donna
People say that what we're all seeking is the meaning of life. I think that what we're really seeking is the experience
of being alive. —Joseph Campbell
*Are you cyclically confused? In a ceremonial quandary? Completely clueless? Wonder no more. Send your questions about seasons, cycles, and celebrations to Mama Donna at: CityShaman@aol.com.
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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 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 works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.
www.DonnaHenes.net
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