I remember playing football with my child out in the backyard recently.  We were having great fun when I was asked me to channel the my Howard Cosell energy.  Although kids today are too young to know who he was, my child likes when I broadcast his spirit.   Somewhere during our game, we noticed a frog hopping along in our field of vision.  Our amphibian friend signaled to us that it was time to transition, clean up and head inside for a change in climate.  After working up a sweat, isn’t it nice to cool down and wash away the grime and dirt?  Meditation on Frog is good medicine for purification, detoxifying and general mind-body-spirit cleansing while traveling here on Classroom Mothership Earth. 

For those of us that like to fly high and run with the wind, we need to remember where we are on the map of consciousness, keep a sense direction and also keep our feet on the ground, while here on Earth.  Before a boundary is pushed or dissolved, we need to learn where the edges and boarders areas are and show respect for them.  It is harder to be a kid and a parent today.  All children need safe, clear and firm limits set so that they are equipped to learn how to effectively navigate through life and eventually know how to self-govern themselves in developmentally appropriate ways, as maturation kicks in accordingly.  Nudging too much or being too permissive does not teach us moderation as a way of life.  Balance is key, which is why those of us in care-taking positions that like to nurture must remember self-care and water our own internal gardens, so that burnout, compassion fatigue and resentments do not build exponentially.  Many folks struggle with balancing freedom and responsiblity, particularly in the USA, because we do not launch our children well.  It is harder to set the big limits when we don’t set the small ones.  Given that mind-body indulgences have been pushed on us in our ego-gratification dominated cultural story, we have forgotten spirit as a key ingredient to our holistic program development, if you will.   

On the global weather front, we are bullied into buying into a mantra that tells us to forget that we are spiritual beings having human experiences.  Somewhere in Middle America, 165 workers are slated to lose their jobs because Mitt Romney and his friends at Bain Capital are planning on outsourcing these jobs somewhere else for cheap labor.  In suburban Dallas, Texas, $60 million was recently spent to build a state of the art High School football stadium in suburban Dallas, Texas.  As much as I love football, the cock in me roosts, “foul ball!”  What are we too chicken to level the playing field to subsidize equal access for all players?  In fact, I heard a police officer chime in class the other day that we should put prisoners to work.  Not a bad idea, but it might bring us closer to justifying hidden slavery, than moving toward true freedom.  Moreover, why not invest an ounce of prevention and a pound of cure by co-creating a system that infuses spiritual values that supports employee empowerment, safe working conditions and paying livable wages, if not envisioning a free for service economy?  Do our friends in Congress really need to be earmarking billions and billions of dollars toward weapons of mass destruction and garrisons around the planet to control the flow of oil?  Is it not a mixed message when we are regularly informed that we do not have enough money for the homeland security programs of education and healthcare for our children, but continue to invest liberally in violence and oppression? 

Former President Calvin Coolidge once said, “the business of America is business.”  In the spirit of that, many of us learned in kindergarten that it is good business to practice to sharing and cooperating with peers.  Or was that Sunday school?  As more of us get into alignment with the natural feeling that spirit wants to authentically express itself, without being held back, we awaken to the demand that our deeper souls are welcome here on Earth.  When this cadence is heard, we will see the mainstream celebration of diverse expressions of Great Spirit, while practicing the politics of oneness on our planet and Universe throughout.

Stay True,

Ari