All That Matters

 

A close friend and very devout Christian asked me:  "You are a Christian, why do you not refer to, or mention,  Jesus Christ in your blogs  and graphics ? Instead, you use terms like The Universe, or One Consciousness or The Force, Love, etc."

 

Ariel: Jesus is all about love. Love is Jesus' central message and the reason for having been born. Love is the very foundation of Christianity. 

 

Do you really think  Jesus, in all his wisdom and glory and in all his goodness and love,  even bothers about whose name I use as long as  I am able to inspire people to know and Be  love?

 

I feed chicken  to non-pork and -beef eaters and  almonds to vegetarians.

 

There is food for everyone to partake of.

 

And that is all that matters. 

 

 

  

 

- ARIEL MURPHY

For Your Weekend

Here's something to think about.

Photo by googleimages.com

 

And here's a song for you:

 

 http://youtu.be/KrkWKdkN-CM

Please make it a loving weekend.

I'll be back next week!

 

- ARIEL MURPHY

The Veil - A Guest Blog by Mark Shapiro

There seems to be a veil that surrounds us—a very thin one. So thin, it may not exist at all. In its absence, there seems to be no significant changes in what is perceived. But there is a subtle change in how perception occurs. From the standpoint of veiled perception, everything seen is filtered through the lens of time, while non-veiled perception is taking place fully in the present. Nothing changes; only the natural perfectness of what is, is seen. How could anything be otherwise? So obvious, it’s almost silly not to see it all the time.

The desire to make things different is based on the past and the fears associated with the sense-memories of pain. Our belief system tells us that the way to avoid a recurrence of said pain is to change the future. Thus a past-future continuum is fabricated. This fabrication is the veil, which is nothing more than a belief.

The often-stated justification to this belief is the finger over the flame scenario. I learn to not place a finger over the flame because the cost would be too high. If I don’t exercise caution, similar painful things will happen. This extrapolation is not logical. The learned experience that a flame hurts doesn’t mean that everything pretty holds danger.

It is exactly this kind of fear-based extrapolation that causes prejudicial thinking and hatred in humans. To see its error, our only need is to understand its costs. In a sense, anger (justified or not) feels good. Stopping to look at the anger can be fearful, and, until the costs of the anger become apparent, the fear rules the roost. In other words, the way to overcome anger/fear is to understand, as fully as possible, what exactly am I paying for a momentary good feeling.

It is the above statement/question that begins the process of removing the veil by breaking the bond between past and future.

About Mark Shapiro: Mark was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He lived in California until he moved to Hawaii in 1991, where he currently resides. What happened during this time is of no consequence; the events are only stories.

When Mark was 8 years old, he liked watching old movies. At 65, he still likes watching old movies. On his 12^th birthday, he surfed for the first time. At 13, he learned to play the tuba, which he enjoyed. He no longer plays the tuba but continues to surf.

Mark was never fond of going to school, until he went to college, where learning was fun. He was one class short of earning his degree in Radio, Television, and Film, but didn’t care because he was working in Public Television. One of the programs he produced was about car repair. He later left television and went back to school to learn auto repair. He set up a business to help people learn about automobile maintenance and diagnosis.

In 1988 he retired because of health issues. He currently drives a 1990 Toyota Corolla Wagon with a 5-speed transmission. It’s the best car he has ever owned.

- Ariel Murphy

Oh Yes! Not Broken, Just Bent!

 

 I found it interesting that barely 4 hours after I had told somebody  "I may never fall in love again but  I will continue being in love,"  I found myself gripped by a video posted by a friend on my Facebook page.

The video shows a group of young-er people singing (acapella towards the end of the song) "Just Give Me a Reason."

 

The group sang so well I thought I'd share the video with you.  

 

Link to the video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3YEoTxXIqI 



Photo credit: googleimages.com

What synchronicity!  The video did not come to my attention by accident. And neither is it coincidence that you are reading this now.

Isn't the universe SIMPLY awesome?

Listen, if nobody has told you recently, you and I, We are beautiful!

Love is wonderful!

Oh yes!


- ARIEL MURPHY

Photo Gallery - The Art and Humor of Alan Shapiro

Choosing photos of Alan Shapiro to post on this blog is like being a kid let loose in a candy store. His site on Google+ is a veritable smorgasboard of goodies! 

I had an extremely difficult time choosing photos to share here so I decided to reserve most of his other photos for another future photo gallery.

Check out his photos and enjoy the humor in the titles.  His photography is both art and joy.

 Staring contest with a Dahlia

All dressed up and ready to play

Coming in for a landing

Almost as beautiful as you

Flower doing time

The tiny things can be the most beautiful

Some poppies are such showoffs

 Spent and drained


 

 Something beautiful to start the day

 An Iris preparing for an epic photo-walk

Lily showing off

Lavender having a vanilla-coconut dream



 

Sunset over brussel sprouts in Santa Cruz


 
 

A moment in the prairie

Clouds and Canola

The view from here

Today

Alan Shapiro in his own words: I grew up on the creative side of the advertising world and had the pleasure of working with hundreds of clients around the world; telling their unique stories in very unique ways. Along the way, I've had the pleasure of working with an incredible number of talented photographers, directors, cinematographers and imagemakers. I became envious of their art and craft. At first, I saw it as a means of reducing my stress-filled life. As a Chief Creative Officer at the world's largest Advertising Agency Network, I needed a distraction. So I bought a camera. And then another. And another. My new hobby and daily "creative exercise regimen" quickly turned into a joy-filled and all consuming passion.

I love talking to all sorts of people and seem to have a knack for getting them to open up and share themselves despite the intrusion and intimidation that a serious-looking camera often represents.
 

I like seeking out and sharing things I find interesting. Beautiful things. Powerful things. Poignant things.

I am incredibly patient and am often rewarded with moments of magic.

I also enjoy taking something ordinary and making it something well beyond that. (To paraphrase Ansel Adams: "…making pictures, not just taking them.") Illustration and painting are other passions and I love creating unique photocompositions.

One thing led to another and now I'm published, in private collections and winning awards.

I live in Briarcliff Manor, NY (just north of Manhattan) with my family, a huge menagerie of animals and what is quite possibly the largest collection of carved coconut heads in the world.
 

- Ariel Murphy
 

Just Enjoy the Ride

I thought this song fitting for the start of a new week. 
 

Below is a link to a video of a song performed by the British band Morcheeba and guest singer Judie Tzuke.  The lyrics are on the video but I have written them below. Enjoy!

Shut the gates at sunset
After that you can't get out
You can see the bigger picture
Find out what it’s all about
You're open to the skyline
You won't want to go back home
In a garden full of angels
You will never be alone

But oh the road is long
The stones that you are walking on
Have gone

With the moonlight to guide you
Feel the joy of being alive
The day that you stop running
Is the day that you arrive

And the night that you got locked in
Was the time to decide
Stop chasing shadows
Just enjoy the ride

If you close the door to your house
Don't let anybody in
It's a room that's full of nothing
All that underneath your skin
Face against the window
You can't watch it fade to grey
And you'll never catch the fickle wind
If you choose to stay

But oh the road is long
The stones that you are walking on
Have gone

With the moonlight to guide you
Feel the joy of being alive
The day that you stop running
Is the day that you arrive

And the night that you got locked in
Was the time to decide
Stop chasing shadows
Just enjoy the ride

Stop chasing shadows
Just enjoy the ride

Link to the music video:

http://youtu.be/pgaGCJfCHjU

Photo from googleimages.com

 

 

- ARIEL MURPHY

Nothing Like Time with Family

I had not seen my daughter for quite a while. So when she visited, she and I made sure to spend a lot of time together doing things we love. We ate our favorite dishes, shopped, went sight-seeing, had heart-to-heart talks.

 

"Mom, if you buy one more dress, I'll disown you," my daughter, who was apparently suffering from some form of deliberately self-induced amnesia, admonished me with a naughty smile.

 

She had obviously forgotten that I had absent-mindedly left my suitcase in my car at the airport in Hilo as I rushed to catch my plane to Honolulu to show her around.

 

I had a convenient excuse  for store-hopping. But I  loved the way my daughter and I reversed roles. It was all about togetherness. Joy. Love.

 

Make this weekend meaningful and precious by giving family and others you love the gift of time. You will discover that  in giving, you are blessed with so much more. 

 

Have an Aloha-filled weekend! See you next week!

 

Ariel and daughter

- ARIEL MURPHY

 

Einstein was Right About Some Things: A Guest Blog by Paul Porter

Matter is energy (light), whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.” - Albert Einstein

“Matter is Energy. Energy is Light. We are all Light Beings.”

- Albert Einstein

"Einstein was wrong." - Julian Barbour

 

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/mar/09-is-einsteins-greatest-work-wrong-didnt-go-far#.UgEvU3anapg

I was thrilled when the Large Hadron Collider at CERN went online several years ago, and even more thrilled when one of the first results from experiments using the new technology confirmed the existence of heretofore theoretical particles that appeared to be traveling faster then the speed of light - perhaps up to four times as fast.

I danced a happy jig, and announced to all within earshot, "It's a brand new day, and a brave new world!"  Suddenly I could imagine a theoretical basis for having all the time I needed to do all the things I wanted to do.  

I could be in multiple places simultaneously.  I could repair mistakes I made in the past.  Leap forward to prepare a better world in which to evolve.  Derail the train of time, hop on my bike, and ride to the edge of the Big Bang.  Meet all my selves - past, present, and future - round us all up in a sweat lodge, and map out a manner of being that would evade all possible negative consequences. 
 

I set the meeting for 4 pm on July 29.  Even got there early with some light refreshments.  And, guess what...no one showed up!!  I guess my other selves are as inconsiderate and irresponsible as I am.  Maybe there's still something I don't understand.

“Remember how electrical currents and ‘unseen waves’ were laughed at? The knowledge about man is still in its infancy.” – Albert Einstein.

 

"Einstein was right about some things." - Paul Porter


 

Ariel's Note: Paul Porter is "a peripatetic pilgrim...eclectic, didactic, but not pedantic...a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. He began his journey on a dairy farm in Kansas, and now rests his head in Pele's fiery bosom on the Big Island of Hawaii. He's always looking forward to tomorrow and the new things tomorrow will bring."

 

 

 

- ARIEL MURPHY
 

Imagine - Playing for Change

We may have different ways of showing or expresing it but our presence in Google+,  Facebook, Twitter, and other types  of social media is a way of saying "I want to connect with you." 

The video below  is John Lennon's "Imagine," as performed by musicians from all over the world who used their voices, musical instruments, and energies to play for change.
 

From Africa through Europe and Asia  to the America's we are all connected by our hopes and dreams. We all cry for the same thing: No more greed, hunger, war. Let's share the world and live in peace.

Aloha and Namaste!
 

Here's the link to the video:

http://youtu.be/bvFLKyAGzzI

Photo source: fr.film-cine.com

 

 

- ARIEL MURPHY

 

A Dolphin Google and Facebook friend?

Animals certainly have a way of changing our realities.

I came home late yesterday weary from work.  Fred, my cat,  met me as soon as I walked into my house.  

"I know you've had a rough day but let me tell you  something that I'm sure will perk you up," Fred purred as he nuzzled my leg.

"It better be good," I told Fred as I carried my glass of merlot and flopped on my couch.

Fred lost no time and jumped on my lap.

"Soon, we will be friends on Facebook and Google+"! Fred told me excitedly.

Fully aware of Fred's very colorful and wild imagination I said: "Please, not now Fred.  I need to chill."

Fred moved his face close to mine. I winced at the distinct odor all the while wondering if all cats smell that way.

 

"Listen. I'm not making it up. Soon we will be internet friends. A scientist involved in Dolphin research,  one of the creators of the internet, a well-known singer, and many other scientists have been working on an inter-species internet," Fred announced as he jumped off my lap and disappeared into a room.

I quickly downed the rest of my red wine and quickly went for the bottle of whiskey on the kitchen counter. I didn't bother to get a glass.
 

Suddenly Fred was back on my lap and waving a piece of paper in front of my face.

"Here," Fred said while pointing at the writing on the paper, "check out this link and you'll understand why you'll soon have to find time to teach me how to create my own Google and Facebook accounts."

http://www.ted.com/talks/the_interspecies_internet_an_idea_in_progress.html#935737

I viewed the link. 

And took a large swig of whiskey.

- ARIEL MURPHY