For those of you who do not know, "ahimsa" is the principle of non-harm.  I have chosen to look at it from the opposite side -- not as a judgment or punishment for harming, but a celebration of and taking responsibility for when harm cannot be avoided.

Think about it -- even a species which decided to curl up and die rather than harm another living thing is doing harm.  There are the species which it was intended to feed upon which would then be multiplying out of control until another species stepped in or was created to fill that role, the species which may have been intended to feed upon them and now has to find new food sources... even the plant life that was supposed to grow where this hypothetical species lay down and died, which cannot grow in the presence of so much protein and metabolic breakdown... it goes on and on.

As has been said many times before (and not a few times by me), life feeds on life.  If we could all be Breathaireans, even that would do some harm to some part of the ecology we live in. 

For a full discourse of my concept of Neo-Ahimsa, please read my article at Pathways Sanctuary's Philosophy page.

Today, while taking a lovely shower, I thought of another extension of Neo-Ahimsa - being grateful for those who lived and died to create new things for us.  At the moment, I was thinking of the early plumbers, who lived to create pipes out of lead to bring us running water -- and often died early and nasty deaths from a life of lead poisoning.  I instantly said a prayer of thanks for their sacrifices over thousands of years.  (If you did not know, the Latin word for lead is "plumbum", and is why the elemental symbol for lead is Pb.)

My thoughts then went out to the millions of workers who lived and died building highways.  I remembered that thousands died alone building one highway from Ouray to Durango, Colorado.  Most of these were virtually slave laborers, but I don't know of anyone who refuses to drive that highway just because it was built on the backs of slaves.  Under this idea of mine, you would not refuse to drive it, you would utter a prayer of thanks for their sacrifices while traversing this (or for that matter, any) road.

In a nutshell, ahimsa is not punishment or guilt.  It is gratitude.

Hugs,
Me

I'm loving my new job, I average 1-3 hours per day at it.  My first (half-)quarter profits were microscopic, but I hadn't had the job long enough for anything I had worked on to sell.  The rest of the staff loves me.

I also started a new job, one day per week (Monday) repairing bicycles that were donated to Habitat for Humanity.

My foot still hasn't healed right from surgery last Autumn, and wish it would hurry up.  Any time I leave the house, I have a minimum of a mile to walk (usually 2 or 3) before I get home, at which time I am utterly exhausted and in a fair bit of pain.

I organized (if that's the right word) a MadPride Day last Saturday, an event calling publicly for human (civil) rights in mental health care.  Still too much forced drugging going on, along with bad or incomplete information on the effects of the drugs, no information at all on alternatives, and some doctor always popping his head up to say how humane and healthful frying your brain with electricity is.  We were right next to a Wiccan group protesting the County's sale of a slip of land to a developer, which would cause the developer to cut down a magnolia tree that is over 100 years old.  We're pretty sure we can get the land sale reversed -- it was just plain illegal, and the County was just hoping nobody would notice until it was too late.

Litha at Splendor Hollow was wonderful, I came home glowing ( and no, that was not because of any sex, which did not happen, LOL ).  Starting to plan for Harvest now.

I probably haven't mentioned a whole lot of things, but then I don't post here often.  I had a very moving moment last night, which I should have posted here but instead posted on my Xanga blog (http://www.xanga.com/mordewis ).

Guess I'll quit rambling for now.  Got my Asheville Homeless Network meeting to prepare for (tomorrow).

Hugs,

Me

Anugraha is a Sanskrit word meaning "Divine Grace".  It is said that this Grace is all around us, and all we have to do is reach out for it.  This concept has been hitting me like a ton of pillowy, sweet bricks lately.

I have enough, and then some.  While I am not in a relationship, I am also not in a damaging or co-dependent relationship as most of mine have been.  But during May, things took a turn... for the better.

I have a new job, working as Administrative Editor for Eternal Press, an e-book publisher whose CEO is an old online friend - and a pagan.  At least half the staff is pagan, and the rest are quite open-minded.  All of our emails back and forth sound like a happy group of friends working together.  The only downside to this is, I have no clue how much I'm getting paid.  I get a percentage of everything we publish that passed through my hands at any point.  Some people get paid weakly (ask anyone with a job, that is not a typo), I get paid quarterly.

Asheville Homeless Network is still chugging along, and I have a lot more support of the homeless community than ever.  If we had some money, that would be cool.  But we have proved a lot just by staying alive for over 4 years.

My ex-next-door-neighbor bought himself an HDTV that (along with a card he bought for his computer) he can use both as a TV and a monitor... so he gave me his old 26" Sharp TV (my old one is 19") AND his old 20" monitor... my mother chipped in some money to show her support... my computer now has a working external hard drive and 2.5 Gb of memory... my roommate got a new job that will last until late Fall, where he lives at the site -- which means both that he will be able to pay me back for carrying him the last couple months AND I have my apartment to myself for a while.

I also started a new job (volunteer) fixing bicycles for Habitat for Humanity.  I'm working out the details of how this fits into my life, but I've put in two 4-hour days already and look forward to more.

My foot is trying to heal... my physical terrorist managed to "break up the adhesions" so the scar tissue can heal.  I have to tell you, my foot has hurt worse the past few days than it did after the surgery, but it's backing off and starting to even look better.  Sometimes you gotta break the eggs before you get to eat them.

One of my old friends (and ex) called today.  She was house-sitting at a friend of hers' apartment, which also contained two books I loaned the friend nearly a year ago, so I got to walk over there (it was just a couple blocks past the place I normally catch the bus to get to town) and pick up the books, plus have a long talk with her, which I haven't done for far too long.  Even spouted off a bit about my growing relationship with Deity, and she knows me well enough to not cringe (LOL!) and think I'm trying to convert her to something.

OK, that's enough bragging for one day.  I hope EVERYONE's life is getting better.  Except maybe Bush and Cheney...

Hugs,

Moss

For those of you who have been reading PaganPages.org, you may have noticed my regular article, "Door to the Beyond: Paganism and Mental Health".  While PaganPages has not been updated recently, friends have told me that it's hard to find and access the archives to read my past articles.

I wanted my friends to know that I have posted my past articles to my personal website, http://mosshippohaven.info (under My Writing).  While you're there, feel free to read anything else on my website.

There are still two articles already written, waiting to be published, and I will not publish them to my website until PaganPages.org decides to either publish them or give up.

UPDATE:  There is a new issue of PaganPages.org ... and my next article isn't in it.  I don't know why.  I have asked.  But it's still a great mag, so go and read it!

Hugs,

Moss

I just opened an Indopagans group.  Anyone with leanings toward India is welcome.

Hugs,

Moss