"Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn." -Fulton Sheen "Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.' " -Charlie Brown. "Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two but can't remember what they are." -Matt Lauer (On Nbc's Today Show). "The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post "Thou shalt not steal", Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment." -George Carlin "Nouvelle Cuisine, roughly translated, means: I can't believe I paid ninety-six dollars and I'm still hungry." -Mike Kalin. "You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is." -Ellen Degeners. "We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture." -Robin Williams. "Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." -Groucho Marx (...More Groucho Marx Quotes). "I'm very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch." -Woody Allen

I have been putting away things off and on all day. Unpacking. I am done for the day. I am watching the seagulls and the wild geese to the sound of wind chimes gently singing in the cold spring air.I only slept 3 hours last night. I overdid it on the yerba mate tea yesterday when I was trying to pick myself up. It is damp, chilly, and overcast. If it weren't so cold I would strip down and jump into the water asap.

Your responses to my post on the secret were wonderful and continue to be. I am so glad to see that so many people appreciate positive thinking (yes to that), and yet many of you see through the BS of this movie called the secret. A light bulb went off today in my head as I read a few new responses you posted.

I have studied, lived with and pondered this movie for over a year now. I am not throwing out the baby with the bath water when I point out all that is wrong with it. Please remember that as you read.....there are some good ideas hidden in between the layers of , you know..and sometime let's talk about that stuff too...

At some point maybe we can all talk about how to create good things in life in the midst of the things we cannot control. How to survive what feels intolerable. Perhaps at some point we can turn this discussion to the meaning of courage, and what it means to be positive in the most honest sense of the word.

I am going to start writing in my gratitude journal again tonite. Gotta fill that thing up no matter how I feel. Use it to shift gears even a little.

How do you feel when the makers of the secret claim that the secret has been discovered, coveted, suppressed, hidden, lost and recovered? Do you believe them when they claim that this secret has been hunted down, stolen and bought for vast sums of money? (yeah our money paying for the books and dvds).

Bravo!

Well that is a brilliant marketing tool, a wonderful way to draw us all in. Bring out the conspiracy theories! It has been repressed! Stolen! We want it back! Uncover it now!

They say that for the FIRST time in history these ideas are are presented in one place. I guess the Bible didn't quite make the grade according to them.

I have a question for you. What do you all think of this- that we are told that this so called secret to success was practiced by some of the greatest people who ever lived such as Plato, Einstein, Beethoven, Lincoln, Newton and others. Has anybody caught this inconsistency in their teaching- that they are holding these people up as examples of the secret? This hit me today-

Check this out-

"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.: -Abraham Lincoln, Jan 23 1841 in a letter to John T Stuart, his first law partner

In 1802 Beethoven suffered severely from depression brought on by the realization that he was losing his hearing. "As for me," Beethoven wrote, "I am in despair so often and would like to end my life."

From one website, I learned that Newton often wrote for 18-19 hours a day, even ignoring meals and sleep. From another I learned that:

"Researchers believe that Newton displayed classic signs of the condition (autism).He hardly spoke, was so-engrossed in his work that he often forgot to eat and was lukewarm or bad-tempered with the few friends he had. If no one turned up to his lectures he gave them anyway talking to an empty room. At the age of 50, he had a nervous breakdown brought on by depression and paranoia."

And what about Einstein? Albert Einstein married a brilliant mathematician named Mileva Maric. In a time when women were not given choices and opportunities in education, she participated in her husbands' scientific work and is now deemed co-creator of his theory of relativity. Einstein worked obsessively, and sometime later began an affair with his cousin Elsa. He eventually divorced his first wife Mileva, leaving her with their two sons. She had a nervous breakdown. One winter Einstein got very sick and thought he had cancer then a gall bladder problem. He was on his back for months. He moved into an apartment across from Elsa and her daughters. Then he temporarily decided he wanted to marry one of Elsa's daughters, Ilse. (Can anyone say Woody Allen?) Ilse was not attracted to him and saw him as a father. In the end, he married his cousin Elsa in 1919 and he had many affairs during their marriage. She died in 1936. When Mileva died, at the age of 73, she was penniless, and her grave was unmarked.

"I can love humanity, but when it comes to close relationships, I'm a horse for single harness. I failed twice, rather disgracefully." As for marriage: "An unsuccessful attempt to make something lasting out of an incident. All marriages are dangerous."

-Albert Einstein---

Has anybody noticed this inconsistency? That the movie touts these people as having lived the secret and at the same time condemns the type of thinking and behaviour that they all struggled with. Does this seem a little off?

They had genius in them, just like you. Just like me. These are men who struggled and were imperfect. Just like you. Just like me.

So it seems to me that the true lessont is not that we can avoid hardships, but that in spite of them, and in spite of all our inconsistencies and crazy shadows, we somehow still shine.

Speaking of shining, I am REALLY looking forward to the warm summer weather. Bye for now.

jo

Hey all- This video is graphic so beware. Please please think twice before eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken. We are all connected- jo http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/anderson-vid.asp?c=nyttext07

Zentertainment Talk Radio Newsletter #17 1. I just moved to Westport CT from NYC. WHOA! 2. I need to calm down 3. Enjoy a 15 minute music meditation this week on zentertainment talk radio. I am featuring music from the CD "Celestial Yoga" by Jonathan Goldman at www.healingsounds.com Close your eyes, take a break from your worries and thoughts, and give this a try! 4. This week, enter to win a FREE copy of "The Divine Name, Sounds of the God Code," by Jonathan Goldman. To enter, just send an email with your name and city and say ENTER ME. Send your entry to: jodavidson@mac.com (You must be signed up for the newsletter at zentertainment talk radio to be eligible for prizes. If you are not already signed up, please go to www.zentertainment.org and then to the WIN FREE STUFF page)! The winner will be announced in next week's newsletter. Blessings to you wherever you are on this journey, Jo Davidson zentertainment talk radio www.zentertainment.org

Hey Everyone,

Somebody wrote me yesterday morning, and he said, "Hey Jo...I just heard about what happened at Virginia Tech...most tragic...I'm trying to put something like this into perspective, but am having a hard time doing so. What a horrible thing to have happened. How do we apply a positive attitude to something so terrible, so evil? I know prayer is in order for the families of the victims, but is that enough? What can we do to prevent something like this from happening again? "

I don't pretend to have answers for all of the big questions. Anyone who kills innocent people, is a person in a great deal of pain. Only love can heal that pain. I feel like the best thing we can do is actually to pray. What a terrible tragedy this has been, for sure. When we pray for people, we ourselves also become changed. If every one of us becomes more connected to the Divine and more connected to love, then that love cannot help but spill out into the world and onto each other. While we cannot prevent evil from happening, if we pray to transform the violence in ourselves into peace, then slowly the world will change.

This week, let someone know they matter. Who knows, maybe they have been feeling invisible or feeling that they don't matter at all. This week, let someone know that they have inspired you or made a difference in your life. This small act of praise might be just the thing to keep them going. This week, do some random act of kindness for somebody who will never thank you personally, and yet might be deeply touched and then go on to touch others.

We often do not realize the influence we have on others. The well known author Carolyn Myss, told a story this weekend about a man who was going to commit suicide. He was trying to figure out which way he would do it. He went to cross the street on his way home to basically kill himself. In that moment a woman in a car smiled and waved him ahead, even though she had the right of way. That small tiny thing made him change his mind, and he decided to live.

When you are a channel for grace, you might never know how you have influenced someone else. I think that is the best thing we can do. Be that channel. It does not mean you have to be perfect. This also does not deny grief, rage, or pain. Sometimes bad things happen, and we look so hard for reasons, because we want to understand how to prevent tragedies and suffering. This is what I know. Love is a far greater healer than our endless searches and explanations to explain suffering. Love is the only true medicine we have. All we can do is open up to love and keep that love flowing even when it hurts the most. And sometimes it hurts beyond words.

One woman at Virginia Tech was in her German class. The killer came into the classroom and killed almost every student in the class. She pretended she was dead, in order to survive. Who can explain something such as this?

There are no cliches for suffering that make any sense whatsoever, nor are any needed. Prayer is all there is. It is everything. Prayer is oxygen and breath for the soul. It heals, it moves, and like water it washes over us and shapes us sometimes through great pain, into the pearls we become. It takes a great deal of time to heal such deep wounds, and some never heal completely. They become losses we learn to live with, that make us who we are. Usually there are no short cuts to healing. First there is the shock, the adrenaline, and then over time the task of trying to process the experience and heal in some way.

Seane Corn ia a dedicated, well known yoga instructor who I sat down and talked to this past weekend. Trauma affects us deeply on cellular levels. I think of what people go through every day in third world countries, or in war torn places like Iraq. Can yoga along with therapy actually help us heal from traumas? Can it be a tool we can all use to heal our emotions, process pain and stuck emotions?

These are just a few topics that we discussed, and you can hear the entire conversation on my episode of Zentertainment Talk Radio with Seane Corn on www.zentertainment.org

This might not apply for you, but here is what I do when there is a national tragedy that is on the news. I watch tv, get the facts, get informed, and then I turn off the tv. If I keep watching the replays of the painful scenes over and over, I feel sucked more into the darkness. Instead of focusing on the pain over and over, I turn my focus into a prayer for peace. Maybe this conversation with Seane can be some form of prayer for you, a way to turn your mind towards the light as we all pray for the families who have lost those they love in this tragedy.

Peace,

Jo Zentertainment Talk Radio www.zentertainment.org *****************************************************

Seane Corn has been on the covers of Yoga Journal, Nike Goddess. Inner Vision and Healing Retreat and Spa Magazine and has been featured in numerous magazines including Glamour, Fitness, Self and Allure, who recognize her as "one of the most sought after yoga teachers in Los Angeles." Selected by Nike to represent yoga, she has appeared in their national commercials and print campaigns. She has recently released her first video series, Vinyasa Flow Yoga: Uniting Movement and Breath and Vinyasa Flow Yoga: The Body and Beyond, which has national distribution through Gaiam Inc. Seane created the yoga program at "Children of the Night," a shelter that houses and educates adolescent prostitutes. As their National Yoga Ambassador, Seane is a dedicated activist for YouthAIDS, whose mission is to raise funds, provide services and spread national awareness surrounding this global emergency.

www.seanecorn.com

There are times when we come across people's stories, and those stories really make a deep impression upon us. Last weekend I met and sat down with John Perkins, who wrote the book "Confessions of Economic Hitman."

I was blown away by his true life story about being an economic hit man. The greed, the corruption, the lies, the sex and even CIA sponsored murders. I became aware of a whole world that I never knew existed- although it didn't surprise me. Maybe I did know it existed, I had just never met anybody from that world. We have all seen our share of movies such as THE FIRM or BOURNE IDENTITY. But talking to somebody in real life is another story. He was told that once he got into the business of being an EHM it was for life. No way out.

If you are reading this, please take a few minutes to listen to his story on the show page at www.zentertainment.org

It really affected me deeply, and I think it will affect you, too. We can all turn things around-maybe not perfectly- but we can certainly make a dent in the corruption, I do know that. I was reminded again that we are all connected.

Find out what is really going on the the rainforest. Find out how The United States is secretly building a global empire and how foreign policy is actually fueling terrorism and poverty. Find out how 40 people on a low budget of 4 million are making a HUGE difference and how you can join them.

Are any of you up to date on sweatshop labor and which corporations sell products made by workers who are living in poverty under horrific conditions? John and I discussed THE GAP, VICTORIA'S SECRET, COCO COLA, REEBOK, NIKE, WALMART and there are so many others. It was a challenging show for me to put together as I wondered- will I still be fired up about this 6 months from now? Will I care enough to actually change some of my choices? Will you?

I would love for you all to hear his story and listen for yourself- make your own conclusions-

peace, jo

www.zentertainment.org

how cool is this? I took this yesterday