Image: Oleg and toy

Thursday, October 9

An e-mail from Diana. She is back working on the angel wing graphics for Visits With Angels and plans to come to Ithaca for a few weeks later this month. We intend to record interviews while she is here. Decided that she should wait to format the manuscript until her visit; she has some good questions and suggestions about how the book is organized, and it will be easier to talk in person. And it will give me some time to think about her suggestions and comments ...

I have been thinking more on Andrew’s last e-mail message to me. Self-reflection is an important part of life. We must try to understand ourselves and the world around us, examine our thoughts and actions and the thoughts and actions of others.

But self-criticism is harmful, destructive. Anything that keeps us in the ego - i.e. our own thoughts and emotions - blocks our relationship with the soul and with the Divine, with God.

In true Self-Reflection, we look at ourselves and at the world around us - yet remember we are the soul, that others are the soul, and that this ‘material’ reality surrounding us is, at base, the Divine sacred Light. If we stand in the world believing that we are the personality, that the material world and its inhabitants are ultimately Real: then we must fall into that world. We cannot stand in the ego and also transcend it. And if we fall into that material world - our ego must react. We will become both self-critical and also critical of others.

The answer is always the same: as we think and act in the world, we must remember that we are the soul, that others are the soul. That we are luminous beings of sacred Light and Love, not this physical body or our psychology, our personality. Or if you prefer, beings of Divine Consciousness - not our small thoughts and emotions.

Of course, the first step is seeing that we are self-critical and changing that behavior to Self-Reflection. In this higher octave of criticism, Self-Reflection, we can see both honestly and clearly - and can also come from a place of Love and Compassion. Then we are able to take the proper steps in a given situation, and bring Peace and Healing with us, even to the most difficult situations.

Friday, October 10

The aide came today, cooked. I must remember to tell her not to empty the dish rack: the youngest cat, Oleg, immediately climbed in and sat in a Pyrex dish. M. came upstairs to look at new photographs I had taken today; she saw the photograph of Oleg sitting in the dishrack and said: "Oh no. I just put that Pyrex dish in the oven with my lasagna in it."

Saturday, October 18

Diana arrives from Dallas this Tuesday night, and will leave November 2. That does not give us many days to work on Visits With Angels, the graphics and formatting - and have interviews. We will have to budget our time well. I am still pondering her questions about the formatting and organization of chapters. When she has finished her graphics and design work, it will eventually be up to me to proofread the galleys and send corrections back to the publisher, one of my least favorite jobs. It seems as though my entire life at the moment revolves around making corrections in manuscripts - either my books or in my music.