I often say that the Internet is the anti-christ, but that time to time, it pays to catch something worthwhile. Watch Bianca Ryan on this post and I think you will agree with me that the voice of this 11-year old is that of a voice prodigy. Pass it along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnPtnv2IXJ4&NR=1
I read an article by Oscar-winning actor Reese Witherspoon (who didn’t love Legally Blond—who doesn’t love Reese?) on InStyle.com today where she covered everything from her divorce from Ryan Phillippe to her new perfume and friends. One of her remarks, “…live in the present and take pictures,” made me think of something I am wont to say so often it is like my mantra, “…turn forgiveness into forget-me-nots.” Reese and I are saying the same things. Her pictures are my forget-me-nots.
Some friends of mine were visiting me in Sedona and they have a lot of life challenges on their plate. In recovery we are cautioned not to tell someone how to raise their kids if you’ve never had any, so I decided to stay away from that subject and instead tried to show them how much I loved them by my actions. It worked. They went home with less heartache and more heart-joy than they came with. He walked the love of my life, Mr. Darby and her one-liners came so fast and furious I am convinced when we don’t know where Bette Midler is, my friend is channeling the Divine Miss M. They are simply the funniest and most loveable duo I have ever spent any time with.
My former agent thinks that most folks who Blog are in it for what they can do to spread the word about them; in other words, the script they send out turns out to be self-serving screed. It’s like FACEBOOK: recently some prominent writer, rather than asking to be your friend, wants you to be one of her fans—huh? What happened to the law of attraction? I write because that’s what writers do. And I love to tell a story and hope that like ripe apples or grapes, there are some delicious nuggets.
When life hands you lemons, how about baking a lemon meringue pie? When you feel you can’t handle one more burden, increase your prayer and meditation life. I often comment that if someone who’d been dead fifty years came back, she would drop dead from all the negativity in the world, or not. She might turn it all over to a higher power and learn another one of life’s important lessons.
I am Albert Clayton Gaulden and I approve of this message.
Founding director of the Sedona Intensive™
Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.
Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/
A severe bout with allergies grounded me this weekend. I took to my bed to rest and recuperate. My intention was to shut off the phone, let the rest of the world go by, and heal. Nothing can lay you low quite like pollen.
As lousy as I felt I was shocked alert by news that two people in a Warriors Retreat on the outskirts of Sedona had died and more than twenty attendees hospitalized after hours in an Indian-style sweat lodge led by James Arthur Ray, an up-and-coming multi-millionaire prophet of New Age hocus pocus. Police reported that the attendees had fasted for three days, save for a light breakfast the morning of the sweat lodge, and that Ray had left the state refusing to be interviewed. A Phoenix television station covering this tragedy reported that the fee for the Warrior’s Retreat was $10,000 per person with approximately 50 attendees. Ray evidently took his $500,000 and vamoosed leaving at least two people dead in his wake.
Years ago I was edified by a spellbinding book Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change (Stillpoint Press, December 1995) by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman. Snapping explores the way cults and other factors cause people to give themselves over to the likes of David Koresh of Waco infamy, Jim Jones whose followers died in Jamestown, Guyana, or becoming walking time bombs like Timothy McVeigh, the alleged perpetrator of the Oklahoma bombing. When I reread this riveting and carefully documented treatise last night I could see how we as a culture have lifted ordinary people—spiritual gurus, authors, prophets—to God-like status, but whose egos and greed have caused them to promise miracles beyond their capability. Now we have a tragedy like the James Arthur Ray Warriors Retreat and I wonder if this is one more example of people looking to an ordinary person to deliver extraordinary results. For my conscious contact with a Higher Power, miraculous changes happen from within not because someone begs you to come to his retreat where you will be changed forever.
It is my observation that when some men and women have a modicum of success in the world of spirituality he or she becomes so taken with themselves that narcissism and other unattractive and pathological characteristics spring up like ragaweed to choke the gifted nature God implanted within them.
This is the question I ask you. How responsible are you for what books you read and what teachers you follow? A television personality may like a certain message or cotton to a particular self-help book, but it may not ring true for you. Self legislate. Discern. Be very careful where you put your money and monitor whose sermons are worthwhile to practice. There are a lot of people who have found a very lucrative career in writing and speaking platitudes that may or may not benefit you as much as they do them. Some apparently don’t walk their talk.
Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.
Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/
