OMG. A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak at TEDx Asheville. I nominated myself months ago, hoping and also frightened to be chosen. I’m going to speak about The Earth Pledge of Allegiance. Honored doesn’t truly describe the feeling I have. It is more than that. It is a dream showing itself in a different manner than I had expected and planned for. To make God laugh, tell him or her your plans. It’s funny when things start happening that you’ve dreamed about. For instance, my son now lives in my town. I didn’t dare think it was really going to happen and now it has, along with his little family. But you read about that in a prior post. Speaking to a crowd of people with the intention of inspiring them. That is a big piece of my dream. Another little fear I have about it is that it won’t happen again. Funny, right? Scared to do it. Scared not to. Scared it is a flash in the pan. A blip in my life. Perhaps I should change the name of my design studio. http://blipstudio.com A blip in time. blip is the first letters of my name…Breah Livolsi Parker. Or Barbra Livolsy Parker. I changed my name. I started out in this world as Barbara Jean Livolsy. I become Barbara Jean Livolsy Parker at 18. Became Barbra Parker at age 22. Finally Breah Livolsi Parker in 1999. Change the name. Change the way of being. Change how others view you.

I’ve always been a very nice person and I was also quite bitchy. I looked at the world with a negative eye. I complained or criticized more than I allow myself to remember. At one point I realized it and decided to practice positive. Flip the coin. Turn left instead of right. My family laughed at me and still I know they learned from me. When I divorced their father, they rejected the changes I began making. Where was their mother? I was told more than once “We just want our mother back.”

That was a tough one to swallow. I was their mother, couldn’t they see that? It was really that I couldn’t see that. I was wrapped up in finding myself. I wish I had done that before I had children. Would’ve saved everyone a lot of pain. But I didn’t. And so they witnessed their mother scrapping for her life, being attracted to all the “wrong” men, being fearful of my ability to pay my rent, losing my business over and over again. They also saw me do things like become an actor on the stage. Take up a new absolutely perfectly fitting business by saying yes to something I had never done before. Being a vegetarian. Not being a vegetarian. Smoking. Not smoking. And they have watched me age. I have watched me age. They have watched me come back to earth after flying every which way.

“When you come to the edge of all you know, you’re either given legs to stand on or wings to fly.”

And now I know how to use my wings to lift off in a purposeful direction. Along the way I have been given gifts. One of which is the Earth Pledge of Allegiance. I did not write it. I borrowed it from an anonymous source, given to me by Terry Deal, the environmental ed director for Evergreen Elementary School here in Asheville. I added “with Peace and LOVE for all” when I illustrated it for the second time. That time we launched a program called Peace and Love for All. Dot com. We set up a website, with curriculum and sales of the poster, bookmark and peace & love sticker. We were gifted a banner by a company whose name escapes me right now and I’ll find out and let you know later. We were gifted the printing of rain forest certified printed Earth Pledge posters. Personally I was gifted with a few people who were willing to trot off on this path with me. Michael Ashmore, Anna Booraem and Amy Ellisor. And of course Terry Deal.

So where is the program? Well, it is here today as I write. We are on the road to bringing awareness to children all over the world, as well as their parents and teachers, that we are stewards of this world, this planet, this Big Mama Earth. It is our job to bring peace to her. We have tapped into her soul. And we have violated it. Can we give back the lives of millions of beings, be they flora, fauna or the human version in the Gulf? We cannot and we CAN turn the ship around. It is turning. It is turning because of each one of us.

In making this Earth Pledge of Allegiance, we are saying we promise and keep that promise to be kind, be loving, be fair, be generous, be of service to all creatures…with the intent of PEACE and LOVE for ALL. No matter what. Trusting that from that place we change the world. We do it anyway. We change the world just by our very existence. Why not make it a positive one?

I pledge allegiance to the Earth

and the Flora…

the fauna…

and the Human Life

that it supports…

One Planet

indivisible, with

safe air, water and soil,

economic justice, equal rights, and

PEACE and LOVE FOR ALL.

Yep, I might have been committed. Perhaps it is this town in particular but I believe that it is happening everywhere. People are waking up to what has happened to our world under our watch. We are leaving a legacy of crooked politicians, corporations, wars fought for fabricated reasons to achieve a goal of ultimate power. People who have behaved badly. We let them, if we were not one of them.

So now what to do? Do we stand by and shake our heads as oil spews into the Gulf. It is too sad to go into all the ramifications. Who are we to mess with another beings habitat? To not ensure the greatest safeguards to keep their home safe. I read an article that said that during the Bush administration a decision was made not to enforce that upon our offshore oil rigs. It saved the companies several million dollars, and this disaster will cost them many billion, along with the deep guilt and despair. I hope the people of those oil companies and those who enabled them, oh which might include us who fill up our cars with $3 a gallon gasoline and enjoy the freedom that provides.

Where have our voices been? Why have we been so silent to let it get so out of hand? Please wake up. Please. Those of us who have been need you to come along too. We need greater numbers of people who are willing to be considered crazy to go against the norm. The norm is ridding our planet of one species at a time, one ecosystem at a time.

Are you thinking “what can I do about it”? It seems an awesome task to turn this ship around. The Renaissance was only 1000 people. We turned the world around then. We can turn it around now. Please join me and, I’m hoping, millions of others around the planet. Wake up and smell the smothering, burning oil in the Gulf, the blood on the battlefields in cities, towns , villages and neighborhoods all over the world. We are killing each other and those that get in the way of that intention.

So what can we do as individuals? We can speak out. Talk about this with your friends and your neighbors. Start a conversation. What you bought at the mall conversation can wait another day. It’s time to ensure there will be another day for someone somewhere. People are starving and we go to McDonalds and eat food kills our bodies[1].

What stops you? I think about what has stopped me and that is fear of rejection. Fear that my children will think I am insane. Fear that others will consider me someone to fear. A general nature of fear, which I have been shedding over this lifetime. I have held a fear of being found out to be the person I have been trying to hide. No one hides for real, only creates a feeling of distrust for a person who doesn’t seem congruent. Something is off. We are the last ones to see ourselves, which is a pity. Enjoy who you are. Be who you are. It is oh so much more than enough.

I’ve been listening to Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader on Democracy Now. The interview by Amy Goodman started with Dennis Kucinich apparently is the deciding vote on the healthcare bill as it stands. What I understood from the interview is that Rep. Kucinich had little choice as there is no consensus in the congress to provide a public option within the bill, which I still don’t understand what that means. Kucinich has compromised his desire for a fair healthcare system in order to get the bill passed. Rather this bill than none, is his position.  The conversation went into the war in Afghanistan and how we have become a society that accepts war as a natural course. Ralph Nader contends that we are being yet pushed aside for the bigger interest of corporations. He wants the American people to get angry and demand a system that provides healthcare for all. He wants us to take to the streets as the people in France do. Civil demonstration, peaceful demonstration, letting our voices be heard that we are not a society that wants war. We are a society that wants peace. We want love to be the dominant force in the world. I am in agreement that we must all take a stand personally. Begin with self. Let your desire for a peaceful and loving existence begin in your heart, your soul, your entire being. Be peaceful and loving. Peace and love starts right here.

James Ray is magnetic as a speaker and personal development guru. His free seminars are actually giant sales pitches for his week and weekend long retreats, such as the one in Sedona. I was mesmerized until he got to the end of his talk that was like a guy at the carnival barking out his attempts for you to shoot the ducks in his booth. “Let me take your money…a lot of it!” is how I would paraphrase the schtick. So the shine came off the star very quickly for me, though I sent him a copy of my book (that I have few left of) with a note of gratitude for the earlier part of his message which was quite good. I never heard from him or anyone in his office. I was given his address by a friend of a friend who is or was his pr person. I mentioned her in the note. Nothing. I slowly let go of my hope that he was really doing a good thing. I decided he was lost in the greed of it and stopped listening until the sweat lodge.

Now James Ray’s biggest teaching is an enormous view of what happens when greed takes over. Somebody gets hurt, somebody loses, someone has pain. In James’ case, it was a horrific tragedy for the people who died and the people who love them, as well as the others who participated in the $9000 week. So, as you head out there toward your dream, claim first your authenticity. Stay with it. Remember why you headed that way in the first place. You are going there because that is who you are, a helper, a nurturer, an activist, a friend of the planet. You know that everyone is created equally and of the same cloth. If you are like me, you wonder why some people are so lost and then you realize that most likely we all get lost in the wilderness, looking for the light across the forest and head to it. The journey to the light is the story we tell when we have found our way into the clearing. We tell it to recount it, to deepen its experiences, to share it so others might find the same elation of stepping into the field of multitudes of flowers and sunshine and blue sky and white puffy clouds.

Amen

A couple months ago I planned this trip, though it was to begin a week later. My Christmas trip away to visit my son here and my daughter in Arizona. I took full advantage of bragging rights as I told friends that I was going to Aspen and Scottsdale for the holiday. Holding my pinky high. I get to do this easily as my son is a pilot and I fly the very friendly skies free of charge. Every time I do this, I wonder why I don’t do this more often and so I quietly make a resolution for the coming year to get on a plane and fly to as many places as his airline goes, packing my bag of Verbal Remedies tricks, becoming a traveling saleswoman. Selling peace and love and pledges to the earth. Hopefully I will also create an opportunity to speak to groups and organizations, daring them to live the life they dream of, sharing the gifts they were born to give.

That sounds pretty good. I have some very trustworthy people who will look after my house and dogs. I’d been waiting to do something like this until that man of my dreams walked into my life. Well he hasn’t walked in. I imagine him off in some other part of the world than I am in, wondering why I don’t walk into his life. One of these days we are bound to bump into each other and see the light in each other’s eyes and we’ll be off to the races, as whoever “they” are say. Until that day, the show must go on…as some of the other “they” say.

In the meantime…I urge myself as I urge others to live life with what life is offering today, in this moment. Gobble it up because there just are no guarantees that we have tomorrow or that we get to do this again. This time last year, my friend Markus was watching my dogs as I traveled. This year Markus is gone of his own accord. No matter what kind of fabulously sacred life he might be living on the other side of this life, he’s not here any longer to pick up his little girl and twirl her around. His twinkly eyes and easy laugh are only memories now. No matter how I might justify his death as something that was part of the plan of life, he did a stupid thing in committing suicide. There are a lot of people who experienced great sadness and must work through their own guilt feelings of not having been enough for him.

Not to belabor the point much longer I still have to say to anyone who is reading this and those you might touch, LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, PRAY, SAVOR. Be the gifts you bring! Be the Christmas gift no amount of money can buy. For yourself and for all of us. Make a resolution to live the rest of your life in love with it, giving back in kind for the unimaginable gift of it.

As much as I want to escape from this feeling that I keep tucking back down inside of me, I know this time I want to stay all the way through. Stay where? Stay in the emotion that keeps nudging my diaphragm. Well it feels like my diaphragm. It’s in that region of the third chakra. The Manipura, the will power chakra. That seems to be the place where I generally stop the feeling and tamp it back down to the netherlands of my first and second chakras. No wonder I have low back pain. Got a bunch of stuff that sits there wishing to be expelled. And so I do, through my yoga practice. I let go. However I had so much stuff from past that needed to leave, I’m just now getting to the current issues at hand with some focus and clarity.

What’s up right now is I have just finished my 3^rd annual catalog project. I’ve learned to hold on through the year financially until I get to this place where I am fed generously monetarily. These last three years I was so starved for cash that I was like a person who has been without food or water and finds an oasis in the desert. My intention this year is to use the time and dollars wisely. Bank the money, continue to do other projects and move into what I love to do the most which is to offer inspiration to live a life we are most often afraid to look at, let alone live.

I developed some pretty good escape valves so I didn’t have to look at the fear of never achieving the full expression of what I consider to be my life’s work. Like finding a man to obsess over who isn’t interested in me, shopping for things that I am so excited that I can now afford, traveling to visit my kids who do not live in town (hey, they live in Aspen and Scottsdale so who can blame me when you add seeing them with a great place to be), obsess some more, fill my time with friends and wine and chocolate. Dream about my wishes while throwing lines in the water, hoping something unseen will bite to my mostly unattended hook.

This year, this opportunity around the same circle must be different and only I can make the difference. I know now that I am that teacher that I “want” to be. Nearly every day I am given the opportunity to be of some service, listening to friends, family, yoga students express their deep desire to be whole. What I give back I believe comes from a higher place of knowing as it comes without much thought. It seems to be a gift. My gift to give.

So now my “want” is to do this on a bigger scale. Write that inspiring second book that becomes a best seller this time, speak with listening audiences in packed auditoriums. Design product that supports the inspiration and inspires itself, (like an iphone app!) How is this going to happen? What do I need to do to create it? I ask and I listen for wisdom that is beyond my current knowing. And that’s where I am today. Staying with it.

For me the answer is yoga and even more clearly so today as I realize that my practice has fallen way off and that must be the reason why my mind is working its way around itself, going over and over similar thoughts. The yoga studio where I’d been practicing 3-4 times a week has closed for more reasons than the economic outlook. I’ve found a new studio that is not nearly so convenient distance or class time-wise. I’m having to create a new habit amidst the chaos, find my peaceful road while my mind jumps from one thought to another. My routine has been upset and my way to getting a new one seems unclear.

What I know is this feeling and situation is temporary. Been here many times and done this many times. And it is not so bad. I mean after all, I’ve got my health, my work, my family and friends, my barking companions (part of the chaos at any time) and a fairly positive outlook. So what to do? Write for one thing. Doing this is helpful. Having some one or two of you reading this is incentive. Who are you? Write to me and the others (more than one or two) reading this Verbal Remedies blog and talk about your own way of getting into a peaceful place and still participate in your life.

Another thing I will do is pull out my yoga mat and create my own practice here at home. I haven’t even been so good at that lately. I’ve kind of slumped away from all that holds me up strongly while I’ve been taking care of biznis. A dear friend who is studying astrology has told me that all of this is “in the stars” and planets. That is a relief and so is listening to the stories of other people who are experiencing their version of my story.

Ultimately, there is a deep trust that resides in me that all is just fine and somehow-someway there is a plan and a reason for all of it. I’ve seen pretty good results in my life from that line of thinking and belief. As Dorey says with her big fish smile, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” Now go clean the toilet.

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.

And there are things to be considered:

* Where are you living?
* What are you doing?
* What are your relationships?
* Are you in right relation?
* Where is your water?
* Know your garden.
* It is time to speak your Truth.
* Create your community.
* Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

—The Elders Oraibi
Arizona Hopi Nation

Tune in next time to see if shift happens and Breah can really let go…dum de dum dum dahhhhhhh! Cut to commercial.