First World Whining

Greetings my gentle readers to another installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. A time when we can step back and reflect on the moments that are and the week that was and reflect and wonder about the footprints in the sand that we have made on the beach of life.  No matter the sand, the warmth of the beach or the fact that the sand may be captured by the waves of times, the footprints that have been done solo and collectively still remain in memory and spirit.

This week one stops and ponders on the positives and challenges of the day and life that we enjoy. One tends to besmirch the moments with shades of black and grey that deaden the life that is. Smear poop all over the tapestry that is our life, often very unwittingly. Plus there are those that were to take the beautiful tapestry of others and drag it down. Why is that? We are creatures of love and light and full of our spirit and spiritual energies that make us more than the sum of our parts.

These parts that make us up are skin and bones, hair and neurons but beyond that lies a beautiful amorphic that one can only begin to conceptualize. It is the “I’ and the “Me” in the equation that is so very much more than mono-syllabic terms and words. This is a battle between the spiritus and the ego. That ego dog is fed all of the time and the First World dynamic is a constant 24/7 buffet of unending opportunities for the ego dog. And what does it eat? But relationships in the end run, all along the way with small meals in the format of commercials, consumerism, commercialism, capitalism and the proverbial “Keeping up with the Joneses”.

Along the way there are such feckless whines and complaints that one hears and is against the spiritus in the favour of the ego that is hungry. One of the things that the ego tends to ingest and inhale is the life, light and shining candle of spiritus that lies deeply within each of us. And one can hear these first worlds whines all of the time. They are that a person is never having enough or as much or what they deserve of what they feel that they should have or deserve. And that creates a sense of un-ease, dis-ease and ultimately disease. That there is an incidence of mental health disorders that is up to 25 times that of remote, severely underprivileged third world countries.

You my gentle readers know of what we are speaking. The constant complaints about things that end of the day and almost certainly by the end of the week will not matter in the slightest. It creates a “Poor Me” situation and can you believe it, the personal actually feels downgraded, downcast and put upon!! When they have health, energy, life, senses, lights, electricity, cars, clean air, clothing (enough for 25 outfits or more)… and you see how insane this situation is. And to make it even worse, often they will take those at ease and try to foist their delusional beliefs upon others in the form of hassling, harassment or bullying. Basically drag them down and shred the beautiful tapestry that is one person being themselves.

How can this be overcome? By being careful of Faith and knowing our faith will define our beliefs which will define our thoughts and thus our actions and outcomes. It is about stepping back in the milieu of the moment and being able to be at ease. To be a kid, a healing entity at heart and mind and be at ease with the moment. To have fun and truly feel and appreciate the senses and elements and connections with the earth that we have. To breathe in fresh air and understand its good to be alive and that we can, if we so choose, know that we can define and write the next set of chapters in our book of life on our Destiny. And then we can touch the heavens that exist on earth, turn our back to some of the hell that coexists and spread our wings. To do so is to be yourself, often.

            ~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   October 2012              

Thanks for ALL blessings on Thanksgiving

Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast. William Shakespeare.

We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. Ritual Chant, religion unknown.

This is the time my friends for Thanksgiving in Canada. To my American friends and colleagues, y'all have to wait for a few more weeks. However the sentiments hold true day to day, so please don't stop reading, ok? Maybe it is and should be a single day event, and can be conceptualized much like religion.

How can that be? That is being that often with religion we “do our duty” for an hour a week and then as soon as we get out of the parking lot its time to vent and bring back out the person that we are. No piousness, but hypocrisy. Sad isnt it? So instead of giving thanks for 1 day of the year, here is that challenge, that being to appreciate the smallest things of life at point of need. There truly are no atheists in the foxholes. Would be such a horrible thing to biatch, moan and whine your way through life and only see the positives when tragedy or the end of days tends towards rolling the credits of the movie that was your life.

Thanksgiving this year, as it should be every year is a time for reflective, meditation and appreciation. That is an appreciation of person, animal and crystal…all living things that co-exist on this rolling blue marble before its too late. Perhaps more of a spiritual perspective would help give us all some clarity.

Oh my friends, it is so easy to give Thanks for the good things in life and the plentiful bounties that are there and the ready access to so many amazing and incredible things and gifts that we have. For the merry feasts and family and loved ones. For the opening of hockey season (if it ever comes) and the roof over our head and all of the plusses on the positive side of the ledger of life. But there is so much more than that to give thanks for, in the life, respiration, colours, sights, sounds and all the blessings and interactions that we are able to sense and touch. A time for blessings and peace if we so choose that if handled correctly, allows our true angelic wings to spread that will ripple out benefits and healings in concentric circles. Not negatives, only positives…yet sadly too many choose the hard route of only focusing on the negatives. That is that there is anger, resentments, feelings of being put down, left out etc etc. L:ife isnt fair to YOU when you are full of negatives. Waaah you.

But this is also a time to give Thanks for the challenges in life, the red ink in the ledger in life that we have experienced and continue to experience. The ledger of life will balance out at the end when the summative tally is assessed and the call to accounting is made and the ultimate withdrawal. But how many actually look at how they handle the challenges in life? How do you deal with these "unknown blessings?" Can you believe I could call a challenge an unknown blessing? The blasphemy of it all! If you think or are thinking this, you my friend are losing out big time. Missing life, opportunities and frankly have a little too much self-entitlement for my liking. Good or bad, richer or poorer, sickness in health we should always be learning, always taking stock.

It takes a fortitude and culture of self courage and self-drive to tackle the negatives from a learning perspective. If you want any supportive evidence my friends, look in the mirror and do a bit of self-reflection and mindfulness on the moment. You are where you are at this point of time of reading this because of all the goods in your life, AND the challenges. If you get stuck in a rut of challenges, you may need to reflect on why you keep getting the same negative outcomes. <bit of a hint here.... try something different!>  You dont have to LIKE the negatives (consider masochism and its linked psychopathologies via root cause analysis) but you DO have the power to decide HOW they affect you and What you are going to do about them!

The expression goes that you dont appreciate something until its gone. Thats why you need to live the moment, seize the day and please take nothing for granted. Whether it be a voice, hug, sensation, feeling, sight or smell... never take it for granted. Life is not designed to be a fight, and uphill battle that we lose, but a gift.... a present. Dont lose out.

To all the happiness and sadness, wins and challenges and positives and negatives.... thank you. Love is an intelligent concern for others. I learned that a decade ago and one of the critical learnings of my life.

Be yourself, often.

                           --- Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   October 2012

The Magical Mystery Tour of the “Z-Prime Factor”

Greetings my gentle readers to another week’s installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. This is that time where we are able to step back and with love, insight and appreciation or the converse (that’s your choice there my friends), reflect, dissect, analyze and revisit the moments that have been what we called the week that was.

Last week we looked at integrate many of the life facets together, finding there is and was something beyond the point in time and life that we call where we are. We started to intuit that there is something even more incredible and a Spiritus we can only begin to see and touch (and even then, only through an oblique angle). This is a point and dimension and represents beyond a medical, psychological or even bio psychosocial model. It represents the infinite blessings and gifts that we enjoy and is the true expression of the Free Will Covenant. This may be called the “Z- Prime” factor and transcends all levels of knowledge, science, and into the amorphic world of theory. To do so is to look at the positives and negatives that used a time that shall never come again and at the expense of that valuable resource, assess the spirit and power to learn and walk away in a way that begets more positives.

As we are well comfortable with there are the axis that exist that may be labeled stuff and time. The cross axis that extends across the two is the person and people that imbue a positive spin on the life, adding in the third dimension and the Z-axis to the days of our lives.

However, there is much more to people than being a carbon life form. We are all here for a set reason, objective and mission that all is as meant to be. Even in the positives and the negatives, it is about the impact that we impart upon this beautiful world that we call Earth.

It is a sorrow that many of us remain grounded in the X and Y-axis and per wit is a shadow on the Light that we can be and dampen the signals to themselves and others when this happens. For there are miracle that abound all about of and we can see them, not directly through the filter of the supermarket, but obliquely through the incredible gifts of the moment that are.
To be grounded in the world of stuff is to be a shade of darkness on the beauty of the noon light. And sorry folks, that darkness and worshipping of darker entities impacts on you, rippling out in negative concentric circles on others.

The converse is true and some of the most enlightened individuals that I know are not rich in monetary value, but inspired as human beings. That they are able to radiate a white light that extends and diminishes that deadened shadows at noon that walk amongst us. These individuals are rooted in the moment and knowing what they are able to touch, and that is a world of the amorphic and beauty. As such, they themselves become a beacon of light that others look to.

Others may not see it directly, but it’s a sense that they have when they see one of these persons of Light. They seem to smile, be less bothered by the meaningless and more successful. Not necessarily successful in the moment of stuff collection, but in success with contentment of the moment of themselves and others. They have a radiance that others see and they can never fully know or appreciate how those moments of joys and blessings occur. Often they try to eclipse the light of the person through a dark cloud of bullying and negativity. But hey, haters gotta hate sadly, don’t they?

Want to feel that magical, mystery tour that is life in the Z-Prime dimension? Be bright, and knowing that YOU do have wings, even if you cant see or feel them... know that they are they are dont be afraid to spread them. Then be light, appreciate all, know things are meant to be and feel the positives and learnings of the moment. Be a kid at heart and then you can touch and be yourself, often.

~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure  October 2012

The Hypothesized “Z-Prime Factor” to the Fourth POWER

Greetings my gentle readers to another week’s installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. This is that time where we are able to step back, reflect, dissect, analyze and with strength and fortitude under the auspices of learning discuss the moments that have been what we called the week that was. To look at the positives and negatives that used a time that shall never come again and at the expense of that valuable resource, assess the spirit and power to learn and walk away in a way that begets more positives.
Last week we talked about co-operation and the synergistic fruits of the moments and the Free Will Covenant that we enjoy to address the situations from a positive or negative light and that synergy reflects upon “ To co-operate is to appreciate and respect the contributions and gifts of others. To give them a say and chance in as balanced of a forum as you are able. To active versus passively listen. To take only what you need and pass the plate along. To be open and receptive and wanting to manifest using what you have so as to actively thrive. That you can express yourself, be open versus absorbing the toxicities having a desire goal and endpoint in mind that is a summation of mainly the small gifts and miracles that exist in the day to day moments and actively offer to share them not just with yourself, but with others and those ideas are respected. To play nicely in the sandbox and be a kid and laugh. All these are in part recipes for better mental health which I might go into more in depth in later weeks. Suffice to say.. To give openly, expecting nothing in return but to thrive”
There is much that we can do and the essential elements that compose our being are our senses, our spirit and the incredible thing that is our humanity. Humanity is what allows us the skill sets to be able to advance in a positive or negative way and go beyond the basic elements that we are as living beings. It has been stated and encapsulated before that there are many living things on earth, and if we were to look beyond the standard X and Y axis of the graph, there is a Z axis that crosses all points. Those points are the intersection of so many miracles that come together and LIFE exists in all. That is the infinite gift of person, plant, animal, vegetation and mineral.
However, from a humanities perspective when we integrate all of these facets together, there is something even more incredible and a spiritus we can only begin to intuit. This represents beyond a medical, psychological or even bio psychosocial model. It represents the infinite blessings and gifts that we enjoy and is the true expression of the Free Will Covenant. This may be called the “Z- Prime” factor and transcends all levels of knowledge, science, and into the amorphic world of theory. Sort of like the conceptualizations that Pluto had to exist by virtue of planetary variations, even before it was seen, or the “God Particle”, one can hypothesize and validate the Z-Prime factor. Why? This represents the invisible lines and shadows that were and are and how everything is exactly as meant to be. Good or bad, happy or sad, it is about a Belief that all is meant to be and even through the Valley of the Shadow of Death (and taxes), things and events transpire that are exactly right, and as meant to be.
 The invisible lines and shadows beget the doors that open if we have the strength, fortitude and belief to open them. Having a set rigid belief in all things material, in my experience, do NOT open these doors. There is and can be construed to be a touch of the magickal in these opportunities. There is no room for that in the big, busy. Ego-driven world of stuff that we are sucked into. These are the X and Y axis and deadens the possibility of looking from an oblique angle and seeing this wonderful opportunity that DOES exist for all. Why BMW (biatch, moan, whine) when something happens and lament your existence when you could (and do) have the choice to prevent it happening again, learn from it and potentially even be a hero, which is taking the challenges that DO happen and use them to help others help themselves and prevent it happening to them.
How to achieve and see the Z-Prime axis? Avoiding filling our vase with ego, stuff and items allows room for this world. This world enhances healing, positivity and across time will reap the positives of a spirit based life. It may open up neural pathways then rejuvenate and heal and the oblique angle allows us to hear colors and see sounds. Be open, use your imagination, be kind, reciprocate in kindness wherever possible, remove hostilities, avoid getting “bent” about things and listen well and play well. Avoiding the drama that doesn’t need to be and embracing the spirit, the humanity and the universe.
For I do believe across time that we can learn from each other and these gifts will snowball and avalanche in a positive way. Be kind and be a kid at heart and play in the sandbox and imagine. Dream. Don’t look for the Z-Prime factor…be it and be yourself, often.                      


          ~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure  September 2012

Fruits of synergy... construction vs. deconstruction

Fruits of synergy... construction vs. deconstruction

"And on the seventh day, He rested". Genesis 1

This week an amazing opportunity arose to compare those two different items, technology vs spirit and religion. Putting faith in religion, family and spirituality compared to that of technology and the subsequent impacts from both. I was going to call them opposites but since they may result in similar outcomes like creating certain ideas (if handled correctly) but also can be totally different, lets call them fruits of synergy and advancing outcomes. And indeed there are fruits of both of these items, if mutual co-operation can be brokered. The fruits of co-operation are a more harmonious, open minded and able to listen society.

 It appeals to the ethics and bioethics and belief structure vs a utilitarian approach where the human and family, despite all statements may be rather hypocritical once the veneer has been shaved off the particle covered chipboard. Competition (even when one party is not looking for competition, but making a sttement of beliefs) are what I would propose are often negative in nature. Need for superego and ego, wars, theft, crime and revving up society to the point where we need more now and engines blow. Sad isnt it as there is much that we can learn through the positive fruits of each other? Basical human kindness and tolerance is too often overshadowed by a malicious word, action or something that impacts and collecting of power and stuff.

I would actually conjecture and state that the opposite is true and that by a collaborative, communal and co-operative approach that all parties can learn and advance. This is an era of construction vs destruction.
So my gentle reader, what are we looking at if we were to consider these two items in balance and where are we at right now in a First world country as we know them? Certainly it filters down even more, but let us speak of the first world, where as I have alluded to before that we are Model T Fords in a Ferrari society? Lets keep this high level, ok? We are no doubt in a competitive state. There are some in a co-operative mode and we each have pieces of the 2 poles and each of us are at a different percentage of the balance. However, I believe there is also a social balance as well, and tipped well into the bananas world of competition, probably at least 80%. Everything has to be all about me (call me princess). I need the best car, house, clothes, food and need to shine and glow and stop. Basically, my ego needs an image and the Emperor is walking around in the buff because someone sold him a line. Why can this culture and society Just Stop This. Who does not receive if I am getting? Do I win the battle and lose the war? Who has to collect the coffee, make the clothes and the rare elements for the electronics, cars etc?

That compares different classes in the world and different countries. Thats easier for most people as they dont see, ergo they dont exist. Whatever, sucks to be them. See ya, dont write mentality.
BUT, what of the competition in a smaller microcosm like a town, city or workplace? Cultures and religions and families vs corporations and workplaces? Who gets hurt? I won so who cares is the concepts and constructs. Well someone does and I can assure you from the work that I do that people hurt so bad it can kill them, flare up sickness or dampen some beautiful spirits. Sad state of affairs. Want to be right and controlling, be a micro-manager. Thats competition, class attitude and destructive on so many levels. Thats not valuing others or respect.  Doesnt have to be at work but this also translates to family, home and social interactions.

To co-operate is to appreciate and respect the contributions and gifts of others. To give them a say and chance in as balanced of a forum as you are able. To active versus passively listen. To take only what you need and pass the plate along. To be open and receptive and wanting to manifest using what you have so as to actively thrive.That you can express yourself, be open versus absorbing the toxicities having a desire goal and endpoint in mind that is a summation of mainly the small gifts and miracles hat exist in the day to day moments and actively offer to share them not just with yourself, but with others and those ideas are respected. To play nicely in the sandbox and be a kid and laugh. All these are in part recipes for better mental health which I might go into more in depth in later weeks. Suffice to say.. To give openly, expecting nothing in return but to thrive.

For co-opertion is living and thriving, competition is going through the motions of life. What do you chose? And if you chose it, dont just tell me as thats useless... go out there and demonstrate it by actions! Only then can you be yourself, often.

  --- Rev Dr.  Joel Lamoure September 2012

The Sound of Emptiness

Greetings my gentle readers to another week that was and will be yet again and the “Be Yourself, Often” Blog. A time when we can reflect on the actions and challenges and opportunities of the week and filter them through the contributions, good and bad that we have imprinted upon the event. Reflection and meditation with quietness and goodness on the positivity that can extend from any, absolutely any encounter that will and has transpired. My new book, “The Peacock on Viagra” available at lulu.com offers reflections and further meditative statements from the period of 2009-2012.

One of the things that have kept coming back over the past 2 months to me and in finalizing the book is the expression “No life is done until all the lives that have been touched are done”. There is much that we are able to offer in simply how we do things and what others see of us. I have stated over and over again that our Beliefs define our thoughts, which will define our actions, which will ultimately define our outcomes.  There are also past energies and karmic reflection at play here which are fourth dimension that we can conceptualize, but never really touch.

And touch is such a valued sacrament my friend. Not just the physical sense, but also all of our senses are touched by the actions of people and we inherently filter those through our own genetics, nature, nurture and experiences. Thus there can be no two people that see exactly the same thing. To take the time and listen to inspiration or what people have to say is incredible on many levels. Our hearts, ears, souls can be touched, if we allow by individuals that inspire us. For we all have the blessing and gift of being teachers… whether we know it or not.

When a teacher departs, for whatever reason… there is a sense of emptiness and loss. Often it is a loved one, family, friend or animal. We cry at the emptiness and feel the loss, often because we know that touch (physical, written, spoken, seen) will never be encountered again in this lifespan. There is a large sound of silence that can only be labeled akin to being on the end of a phone receiver, but the connection is gone. There is no sound emptier than a dead line.

Reflections of the loss of that connection through death or other actions should give us pause. So many say that in times when the end is near, that family pulls together and this is true. That there is an unconditional love that extends for a short time as we look at that black implacable wall of nothingness. And then we feel the shock wave hit us… the connection is gone. Phone lines down, not even an operator standing by.

Yet it is because we love that that memory and the touch resonates still within us and we can reflect on the time when the person, pet or loved one was there and we can be at ease and almost feel their touch upon us again.  For as we move forward, they live on in us through the actions, gifts and touches they have taught us and imparted on us.

Thank you to all those brave souls who give, offer and have passed on… yet are still with us. It is reflections like these in the moments of a dead line that remind you to embrace everything up front and it is not about money or an infusion of cash… that will not save us in the end. We can replace all the stuff in the world, but not that gentle touch and kind heart and often we have guilt as survivors for what could have been.

Maybe, just maybe we can learn in our periods of loss, remove the ego from the equation and want and embrace and feel and especially appreciate the small things and gifts. For I believe my gentle readers, that if we can learn to love the small things and the touch of others, they will help us to help us which will then help others and truly in a sense of purity and Light to be yourself, often.

                                    ~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure  September 2012

Dream Beyond the Expectations

Greetings my gentle readers to another week’s installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. That time when we are able to step back, reflect, dissect and discuss the moments that have been what we called the week that was, all under the premises of advancing our humanity, spirit and power to learn in a way that begets more positives.

Along the way we should be aiming for a shoreline and a destination that we strongly believe in based in our own Belief structure.  We know well that our Beliefs will define our thoughts, which will impact our actions, which will change in a positive or negative way the outcomes that we receive. Certainly we know that not all outcomes are deserved, desired or what we had expected at the time, but it is balancing the concepts that everything is exactly as meant to be versus the human desires that we have.

Those human desires tend to be sold as a bill of sale as the expectations that we will be able to have in life. Even more, that illusion and challenge is becoming more robust as these fallacies often set us up for a fall… a major one. Why is that? We know that we cannot take it with us yet we hoard and express and demonstrate so many of Dante’s Deadly Sins. These sins all tend to root around the general concept of the self and greed.

Greed and the golden calf and the moneychangers at the table offer us a very valuable lesson. For we know what befell these civilizations and individuals. Yet, what of the individuals that was and is hurt along the way? What about them? As the divide becomes wider and the lines of reality become fuzzier, what eventually will transpire? One may hypothesize that the expectations and the world of stuff will become a non-issue. We move into worlds of karmic outcomes at this point and ultimately the actions of the individual…not the system will define their outcomes. Relying on the societal driven outcomes I worry may lead us to a form of group hysteria, or even worse if history is to educate us well.

It means that this is the time to help advance humanity at a critical point where there is risk of divide. There are those that are headed to evil acts behind the curtain and prosper and those that are wonderful friend who give and have gifts and talents that they share without remuneration and suffer. There is no set reason in this chaos theory, which reinforces the desire to come to a common ground of the bill of sale of the machine.

To dream beyond the expectations means that how would we act at the end days? What if we were actually in the proverbial foxhole and what would you do?  This should rule our actions in the here and now, even beyond a theological discussion and ties into basic kindness, humanities and ethics. For those that are able to look to that outcome, which will happen to all of us will obtain their desired goals. What do others think of you when you are gone? What sort of life are you living? Is it rooted in ego and you or rooted in humanity? How do you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror? Are you able to see the positives, or always denigrate others?

A goal I have is to give the incredible kindness and bounty of intelligent concern, love, kindness and positivity to others and advance the curve. The best curve on a person after all, is their smile.

Really, to dream beyond expectations means are you willing to hold the ladder to help others up, pull them out of the fire or do you push them in? We have the ability rich or poor to practice basic humanity for it costs little and to save the world and live the dream.  You can be positive or negative in approach and also feeding or dousing the fire… again, you drive your outcomes beyond the expectations offered in the now. Whatever you do, will return in aces and good or bad will define and become and be yourself, often.



                        ~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure     September 2012