Alma Mater

Seeds XIV, 4

Seed: Alma Mater

This wonderful Latin phrase is translated by the OED as bounteous mother.  The definition goes on: “A title given by the Romans to several goddesses, especially to Ceres and Cybele, and transferred in England to universities and schools regarded as fostering mothers to their alumni.”

I looked up the word alma just to be sure. It comes from Arabic roots, almah, meaning learned or knowing.

For what it’s worth, I’ve thought I knew the meaning of this phrase for years. I thought it meant Soul Mother. Certainly, my undergraduate experience turned me more into myself, turned me ever more toward my soul.

No matter its actual meaning, take a moment today to give thanks for whatever education you have, whatever mothers have gone before you as learned or fostering. Everything we learn—hopefully—helps us grow, even if what we learn needs unlearning at some point in time.

Be brilliant,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

If  you would like to be added to the Seeds e-mail list, visit the sign-up page..

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com, and my blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

Self-Care 101

Couldn’t resist this … it’s too important for each of us.

Be Good To You

posted by Donna Henes | 10:00am Tuesday January 17, 2012

January is Self-love month. And if it weren’t, I, Queen Mama Donna, would declare it so! So for the rest of the month I will focus on the ways that we can show love and support to ourselves.

There is only one person who is absolutely guaranteed to be with you loyally every day until you die. So you might as well live her! Will you join me in showering your Self with love starting right now?

Be Good To You

Author Unknown

Be Yourself ~ Truthfully

Accept Yourself ~ Gracefully

Value Yourself ~ Joyfully

Forgive Yourself ~ Completely

Treat Yourself ~ Generously

Balance Yourself ~ Harmoniously

Bless Yourself ~ Abundantly

Trust Yourself ~ Confidently

Love Yourself ~ Wholeheartedly

Empower Yourself ~ Prayerfully

Give Of Yourself ~ Enthusiastically

Express Yourself ~ Radiantly

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/thequeenofmyself/2012/01/be-good-to-you.html#ixzz1joWHodES

For spiritual nourishment, please visit www.susancorso.com

Panic

Seeds XIV, 3

Seed: Panic

I had a bit of a panic this winter. Three-quarters of my hair fell out in a very short time. Truthfully, panic doesn’t even begin to describe it.

So where does panic come from? Etymologically, it comes from the god Pan. The Wiki says, “Pan, in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein, meaning to pasture.”

Pan-, as a prefix, means all.  Interestingly, the OED says its roots mean groundless.

So what did I do? I had some blood tests, took the appropriate supplements, kept researching and figured out that it was a “normal” side effect of the surgery I had this summer. Panic over. Beautiful red hair returning to its former glory.

When panic next grabs you, have a care to remind yourself that whatever is panicking you is groundless. Ask for help. Help will come.

Be brilliant,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

If  you would like to be added to the Seeds e-mail list, visit the sign-up page..

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com, and my blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

One Size Fits All with your Doctor? Really?

This is another post that HuffPo turned down. I think the editorial staff are all lawyers.

“Where did this One Size Fits All mentality come from? asks Barbara Winter in her delicious newsletter for self-bossers, Winning Ways. She goes on to cite Faith Popcorn, “When the first Ford automobiles came rolling off the assembly line—shiny, smooth, and above all, all the same—the world came to see uniformity as the mark of excellence for the modern age.”

This is true for a lot of things, but not the things that require what I call “chemistry.”

It doesn’t matter if you have chemistry with your plumber. The sink is clogged, she unclogs it, you write a check, you’re done—even if you don’t like the plumber.

It matters, however, and matters a lot, whether you have chemistry with your doctor. Doctors aren’t interchangeable. I’d go so far as to say that no kind of doctor is interchangeable with another.

If you like your doctor, you’ll listen better. You’ll trust more. You’re even likely to get better faster if you like your doctor! I don’t know if there are proper studies for this, but in my work at  Visions Healthcare going on three years, I’ve seen it time and again. Please consider this a claim based on anecdotal evidence.

The reason this is so, despite the patent wisdom of Henry Ford, is that uniformity is the very last quality that can accurately be applied to humanity. None of us is uniform in any way except in the template sense and then only if we are blessed with what is considered normal: two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears, one mouth, et al. In fact, once we escape from the template mentality, uniformity is done for. Think, for example, of the ears you have seen in your lifetime. Even on the opposing sides of one head, they’re not uniform.

A patient I’ll call Jane told me a fascinating story this week. She originally came to Visions to see Doctor A. Jane liked Doctor A plenty but she wasn’t “serious enough.”

I know Doctor A—she’s serious, but she’s also gentle. Patient Jane is a Type A personality.

She went on, “So I switched to Doctor B. She’s perfect for me.”

I know Doctor B. She’s much more a Type A and can meet the intensity of Patient Jane far better than Doctor A.

Both docs would probably have prescribed the same treatment for Jane. It’s just that Jane had chemistry with Doc B and not with Doc A.

She’ll get better faster working with Doc B, and she told me that since she’d switched, she was rapidly on the mend.

It seems so strange to me that we have learned to expect uniformity of ourselves. Why would anyone want to be uniform with anyone else? Our country motto even states this: E Pluribus Unum: Out of plurality, one.

That one isn’t uniform, dear one, it’s as diverse as it is possible to be diverse.

The next time you feel like you need chemistry with any kind of provider in your life and you’re not getting it? Keep looking till you feel that old-fashioned inner click that says, “I see you. You’re uniquely you, and somehow we fit together.”

For spiritual nourishment, please visit www.susancorso.com

First Language

Seeds XIV, 2

Seed: First Language

Pico Iyer wrote a wonderful opinion piece for The New York Times on January 1 of this year called The Joy of Quiet. This quote from Trappist monk Thomas Keating reinforced his wisdom for me.

Silence is God’s first language; everything else is just a poor translation.

I know you’ve heard me rant and rave about the noise in our world before, but this is something slightly different. Wanting to hear God’s first language means we crave silence. It will surprise you how hard it is to get, especially inside your own head. Or maybe it’s just inside mine.

The thing about poor translations is that seeking guidance or God’s first language is natural to our species. Poor translations arise because we have too much inner noise. The next time you want a little guidance, tell those poor translators to hush a minute, and go for the silence within.

You’ll hear exactly what you need.

Be brilliant,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

If  you would like to be added to the Seeds e-mail list, visit the sign-up page..

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com, and my blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

Learning to Edit

I was inspired by this paragraph from Joyfully Jobless News Barbara Winter’s first e-newsletter of the year.

“Learn to edit. Editing is the process of sifting through large amounts of material and taking out the bad, the so-so, the mediocre, the unimportant, and leaving in the best. Learning to edit is also learning to discriminate, to prioritize, to evaluate. As an Informed Source, your audience depends on you to deliver only that information which is pertinent. Incidentally, being a good editor doesn’t just apply to information: it’s also a necessary skill for living your best life.”

Yes, it’s a very valuable skill to be able to take a lot of information and strain out what is meaningful for ourselves. A Sanctuary Seminary student this past year told me that it was her training in law school that enabled her to get through volumes of material. However we learn it, the value to our time is incalculable.

I completely appreciate what Barbara is saying here, and I want to contextualize it a little differently from the way she has.

We have the information of the entire Universes at our disposal. We can access it through prayer and meditation whenever we get still enough to do so.

Learning to edit means learning to recognize what is relevant for ourselves and what is not.

Learning to edit means cutting away what isn’t germaine.

Learning to edit also means letting go of what doesn’t matter to us.

Somebody once criticized me for not being “born again,” in the born again Christian sense. It was easy to edit it out. It didn’t matter to me.

We get to edit out what doesn’t work for us, dear one.

What freedom.

The Law of the Farm

Seeds XIV, 1

Seed: The Law of the Farm

I look for Seeds all year long. This one comes from an essay by 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen Covey. He says there’s only one law: the Law of the Farm. I know, I know. Farming, for a City girl like me, seems like an odd metaphor, but I’m with Mr. Covey on this one. He writes:

The only thing that endures over time is the law of the farm: I must prepare the ground, put in the seed, cultivate, weed, water, and nurture growth. So also in a business or a marriage there is no quick fix where you can just move in and magically make everything right with a positive mental attitude and a package of success formulas.

There’s an awful lot of hype about what the year 2012 is supposed to mean or bring to us as a species this year, and whilst it may, indeed, be true, there’s also the Law of the Farm.

Have you investigated the ground? Is it prepped? How are your seeds? Do you have all the different ones sorted by their kind? Are you glad of what you’re planning to plant and grow? What are you cultivating this year? Are you prepared to show up, weed, water, and nurture growth?

If so, good for you. If not, stop and make the time to choose what you’re creating in this bright new year of so much promise. Notice the closing for this year’s Seeds, Beloved. I’m sure whatever you create will be brilliant.

Be brilliant,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

If  you would like to be added to the Seeds e-mail list, visit the sign-up page..

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com, and my blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

A New Year, A New Me

My life has changed a great deal in the last year. Among the things I’ve realized is that I need to change my blogging schedule. Writing another Mex is calling to me. So for this blog, I’ll be posting on Tuesdays and Fridays in 2012.

This post is from Queen Mama Donna Henes’ Beliefnet blog, The Queen of My Self.

Meditation for the Fully Realized Woman

posted by Donna Henes | 10:00am Friday December 30, 2011

Blessings, one and all, for a New Year filled with promise. May you continue along your path to Self-sovereignty with purpose, passion, and power. With Queenly aplomb.

May you live as a Fully Realized Woman.

With blessings of new beginnings,

xxQueen Mama Donna

Meditation for the Fully Realized Woman

By Karen Andes, CA

I am a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN,

with a beauty that doesn’t wash off.

I earned it, unearthed it,

rescued it like a jewel in the dust,

picked it up and made it shine.

For years, I did not see it,

though I sensed it was there.

Now it dazzles and thrives.

I am healthy, capable, independent,

strong yet still so fragile, floored by a sigh.

My body is that of a creator

— angles meeting curves, hardness drifting into soft.

I am mother, daughter, sister, lover to myself.

Embraceable and brave, I extend my heart.

My body is home, my home a shrine to life,

comfortable, warm and rich with treasures.

Mine is the scent of hit spices caught in a breeze,

mine the laughter that wings through the door.

I share myself only with those who honor me as I am

and protect myself, my house, and my time from invaders.

I search for my center in the midst of chaos,

practice peace as wild dogs clamor in my mind.

I use power for the greater good,

release rage in neutral settings,

with no one innocent in the line of fire.

I am learning how to persist and when to let go,

am willing to feel all emotion stop their depths and exaltations,

to wake up in every nerve

and no longer am afraid of my life.

Both my beauty and strength

transcend age, time, and perhaps even this lifetime.

Each day I am new, yet more at home in myself.

Moment by moment, I create my world

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/thequeenofmyself/2011/12/936.html#ixzz1i7EJKSAH

2012 & The Mayan Calendar

Seeds XIII, 52

Seed: 2012 & The Mayan Calendar

I’m sure you’ve already heard the predictions around this New Year we enter tomorrow. Plenty of folks have asked me if they’re “true.” I’m inclined to quote Pontius Pilate, believe it or not, “What is truth?”

So, are the prophecies true? No. Just because the Long-Count Mayan calendar ends on 12/20/2012 doesn’t mean the Earth ends on that date. Some folks say it means apocalypse; others say it means spiritual transformation. I say it means whatever you want it to mean, just like everything else in our lives.

2012 is a 5 year numerologically. Five is the number in the grid that touches all other numbers—therefore it is, by its nature, a year of connection. Some of the connections will be outer like, say, amongst sister cities around the world. Others will be inner like beginning to understand on a deeper level that we are all connected whether we can see it or not, and whether we like it or not. What I do in Boston affects what others do in Kyoto.

Don’t get me wrong, dear one. Those who believe that 2012 means apocalypse will experience their own version of same. What I want to leave 2011 with is that we are walking into a new year of both inner and outer connection, and that will be a very good thing ultimately.

Happy New Year, Happy New You!

Be magical,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

P.S. I’m sure, as I learn more about it, I’ll write more about it.

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

If  you would like to be added to the Seeds e-mail list, visit the sign-up page..

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com, and my blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

Sanctuary Good Newsletter

Sanctuary

ANNUAL Good NEWSLETTER

December 28^th 2011

Beloved Sanctuary,

The end of 2011 has been so busy that this good newsletter is a week late. As you probably know, Sanctuary was started thirteen years ago on 21^st December—the Winter Solstice or Yule—in an upper Westside Manhattan living room. I can still see those folks taking communion of star-shaped cookies and grape juice. I had no idea at the time that Sanctuary would become an ongoing pillar in my life.

Beloved, you know as well as I do that dreaming and taking guided action works. If you haven’t visited your wish list recently, take a moment to do so now. How far have you come? Do you have a ways to go? Spend some consciousness on making your life dreams come into form.

2011 was a year of consolidation and simplification. Here are some highlights:

Visions Medical Center

As of January, I will have been at Visions as their Spiritual Alignment Counselor for nearly three years. Currently, I see patients by referral on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Each session is two hours.

In addition, my guidance to Visions has been sweetly recognized by an invitation to become their official Chief Spiritual Officer. We meet monthly to catch up and tune in.

Visions is opening its new world headquarters in 2012. We bought a massive building in Dedham, MA to do so, and the process of renovation is already underway. It’s likely that I’ll add a third day so I may serve patients in both locations. My wish list includes a training program for those who wish to learn to do Spiritual Alignment to serve themselves and others.

ToMePeaceIs.com

My guidance around my inner peace activism is very clear these days. Do the daily practice I devised last year: ToMePeaceIs.com. More people are discovering the power of the practice. Won’t you join us? The idea is simple: just finish the phrase To me, peace is … Peace, in order to be a reality, has to be a daily practice and the definition of peace changes all the time according to where and who we are the moment. I invite you to a daily peace practice in 2012.

www.susancorso.com

In 2011, www.susancorso.com continues to be an expanding spiritual department store. I am so very pleased to say that my writing is “stolen” deeply and often on the worldwide web. It pleases me immeasurably.  My writing has appeared from Australia to Hong Kong, Dubai to Germany, and all over the United States.

We update the site all the time with new materials. Please consider it prime digital real estate for spiritual nourishment, and visit often.

Blogs

Seeds for Sanctuary: omnifaith spiritual insights for seekers and finders

Ode Magazine

Huffington Post

Visions Medical Center

In 2011, I continued to post thrice weekly on my personal blog Seeds for Sanctuary, as well as weekly on Ode, The Huffington Post, and every other week on Visions’ site.

In 2012, I plan to change my posting schedules to twice a week on Seeds for Sanctuary, twice a month for Ode and Visions and monthly for Huffington Post. I realized a couple of months ago that I was a year behind in my novel-writing schedule so I’m streamlining the blogging to have more time for personal writing.

Facebook & Twitter

I find that Facebook isn’t useful for me so I visit there rarely. I tweet personally every day. Each one starts with To me, peace is ….

Not-for-Profit Umbrella

Sanctuary continues to provide a not-for-profit umbrella for the prestigious Zerka T. Moreno Foundation. This foundation is amongst the foremost purveyors of psychodrama techniques, and they do educational programs around the world.

We are also considering providing the same sort of financial services to the ministry of Write Here, Write Now which was founded by LGBTIQQAA activist Toni Amato.

Ordination

As you know, I am an Adjunct Professor on the faculty of the College of Divine Metaphysics, a distance learning organization founded by third-generation Ernest Holmes students and accredited since 1918. This course of study is fiscally reasonable and can end in both ordination and a doctorate, depending upon the choice of the candidate. If your heart is tugging you to ministry, consider this option and be in touch.

This year, I joyfully ordained Rebecka L. Eggers who is beginning her coaching ministry in Mexico even as I write. In addition, there are two Sanctuary Seminary students in Manhattan who will be ordained early this year.

Ceremonial Ministry

We do all those ministerial things that call upon us: weddings, funerals, christenings, ceremony, healing, counseling. Lately requests for coaching and Chief Spiritual Officer consulting for businesses have been knocking upon the door.

On a Personal Note

This has been a banner year for me although not without its challenges. In June, my sweetheart and I went to São Paulo, Brazil (along with an amazing, intrepid dear friend) so I could have metabolic surgery to cure Type 2 Diabetes. We went to Brazil because I was “too thin” to have the procedure in the United States. The surgery was a complete success. I am now six months into the recovery process which has been slightly fraught but so? It should be another six months or so and I’ll be completely well for the first time in 23 years. Can you say … grateful?

Wish List for 2012

I have so many wishes for our world right now that it’s hard to pin down just a few:

I wish that everyone find susancorso.com who needs it.

I wish that the rampant fear in our country and our world would resolve into faith.

I wish every one of you would invite your friends to Seeds!

I wish that each person on Earth who seeks to serve humanity be shown unmistakably where and how to do just that.

I wish that peace would establish a permanent place in the values of humankind.

I wish that metabolic surgery were available on every street corner to those who need it.

I wish that my novels be published as bestsellers in 2012.

Circulation

One of Sanctuary’s initial supporters insisted we apply for federal not-for-profit status. It was quite a process. After eighteen months, we did it! Sanctuary has its own 501(c) 3 status. Lots of not-for-profits write year-end appeals, but that’s not what this is. It’s a . . .

Happy Birthday

to Sanctuary!

Here’s a promise: one letter like this per year. That’s it. If Sanctuary’s Seeds or other services have nourished or sustained you over the years, would you consider making a tax-deductible gift? The particulars appear below for financial contributions, but the opportunity isn’t limited to money. If you are moved to help advance Sanctuary, consider gifts of your time and your talent as well as your treasure, Beloved.

Contribution Particulars

Should you choose to make a financial contribution, please make checks payable to Sanctuary, and mail to Sanctuary, c/o Dr. Susan Corso, P. O. Box 440104, Somerville, MA 02144. The other, often faster, easier option is to give through Paypal. The email is susan@susancorso.com. In January 2012, you will receive an official letter to document your tax deduction.

Thank You

in advance for your thoughtful giving!

You are receiving this a week or so after the day that the light, metaphorically speaking, returns to the world. Technically, even though we can’t see it, it means that starting a week ago day begins to be longer than night.

May your days, through the holy days and every day, be merry and bright!

In joyous world service and a heartfelt invitation to peace,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

for Sanctuary