Talk Like A Pirate Day

/

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day

Every year on this day, 19 September, you'll hear a cacophony of "Arrgggh!" being growled as people celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

What in the world?

Yes, as recently as 2002, International Talk Like A Pirate Day is an "official" celebration.

Humble Beginnings Of Talk Like A Pirate Day

It all started when two guys were playing racquetball, (of all things, they weren't even sailing) in 1995. They found that they hit a better game when they used "pirate terms and slang." Thus, was born an official Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Initially, it just remained a fun game among friends. However, once a syndicated columnist got ahold of the story, the rest was, as they always say, history.

I won't try to paraphrase the whole adventure, you can check it out in their own words here.

Celebrating The Radiance Technique® – Whatever You Do

There actually is a point to this unlikely topic about talking like pirates, here in a blog where we're Celebrating The Radiance Technique®.

An important part of this celebration is bringing radiant energy to all that you do.

Getting Involved In Pirate Talk

Ready for Talk Like A Pirate Day!

I was vaguely aware of Talk Like A Pirate Day, but had not given it much thought. That is, until I went to work in a hospital where the commander embraced Talk Like A Pirate Day as a way to have fun and lift morale. You could hear him calling out an "Arrggh" on occasion with a broad smile on his face as he moved about the hospital on rounds.

I was tipped over the top into the adventure when Talk Like a Pirate Day was approaching and the Hospital Commander invited hospital personnel to dress up and talk like pirates for the day (G-rated, of course).

Well, who could say no? A pirate oufit at work and a chance to practice saying "arrrgh" and "avast"? The actress in me couldn't resist.

Off I went to hunt up a pirate outfit and had wonderful fun finding doubloons and swords and tri-corner hats. Pirates have a full and rich history from those sailing days.

How delightful to learn "pirate terms" and ways of speaking from the 1700s.

As a pirate, you'll need to note that you just can't say, "It's a nice ship."

You have to say, "She be a mighty, fine, grand ship." All hyperbole is welcomed. And always speak in the present, everything is "be" – I be, you be and we be!

If in doubt, you can always refer to a pirate dictionary such as The Pirate Primer. Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues, by George Choundas.

Hospital Lightens Up With Talk Like A Pirate Day

While I thought our Pirate Day at the hospital would be pleasant, I was not prepared for the lift in the mood of everyone who was there that day. It ended up that it wasn't just a mood-lifter for hospital personnel. All the patients had a lot more smiles too.

My heart was touched by the wonder and rapt attention from the children when they saw a full costume. They couldn't tear their eyes away and always reached out to say hi, or wave, even from across the room. They loved it.

Be Ye Ready Fer A Mighty Fine Pirate Day?

Now me matey, I had to take this mighty Talk Like A Pirate Day even further in light and devised my own up-the-spiral idea of a Meditating Pirate in search of the Booty of Awakening and the Shores of Enlightenment.

Here is my Captain's Call for the great sea voyage:

Ahoy, me hearties!

Aye, I be the swashbucklin' Cap'n Leslie

of this here great, grand ship and she be the finest that e'er sailed these mighty, wild seas.

Me an' me maties, we be searchin' fer the Booty of Awakening an' our compass be set fer the Shores of Enlightenment.

I not be lyin' to yer strong heart, 'tis a long an' dangerous sailing. Arrrgh, Davy Jones Locker be near, but me crew be the finest, bravest buccaneers ye e'er seen! Yo ho!

Savvy, matey? 'Tis a mighty, sharp saber I be carryin' fer to slice through illusions and a quick, ready pistol fer to slay any demons on the harrowin' voyage to the ends of the earth.

Yaarrrrr, ye scurvy scallywag, be ye ready to weigh anchor and hoist the colours with me?

The sun be a-rising me worthies!

Avast ! Set a new course !

 

Talk Like A Pirate Day Song

Lots of people have loads of fun with this day dressing up or even just saying "Arrgggh" in their office at work. This song is a great description of the harmless escape into a Pirate Day while at work.

As the song says...

So hoist up the mainsils and shut down your brain cells,
they only would get in the way.  
Avast there, me hearty, we're havin' a party, it's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Bring Light To Your Activities

Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) can bring more light to their outer activities, whatever they may be, through use of the TRT® hands-on. Use of TRT® can be on the spot, even while dressed in a pirate costume.

We can all get into the light-hearted spirit of Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Pirates Of The Caribbean – The Movies

Disney is certainly in the pirate game with the series, Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a wild cast of characters, not the least of which is Captain Jack Sparrow. Many an inspiration for pirate costumes comes from this movie series. 

There are also activities at Disney World where you can explore the themes of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Practice Your Arrgggh!

In the meantime, go forth, and growl yerself a mighty Arrgggh!

And... Remember, me matey: just like Captain Jack Sparrow in this photo, even a pirate can meditate.

The Way To Do Is To Be

/

The Way To Do Is To Be

“Always we hope someone else has the answer, some other place will be better, some other time it will turn out.

This is it. No one else has the answer, no other place will be better, and it has already turned out.

At the center of your being, you have the answer: you know who you are and you know what you want. There is no need to run outside for better seeing, nor to peer from a window.

Rather abide at the center of your being: for the more you leave it, the less you learn. Search your heart and see the way to do is to be.”
— Lao Tzu
 

Presented in this poem by Lao Tzu is a koan for us to ponder between "to do" and "to be" – as they are both movement and stillness, each in their own way.

 

Doing And Being

Do you ever find yourself running after a better place as mentioned in this poem?

Do you find yourself searching for something else out there, not even sure what it is?

It's tricky, because we want to plan and prepare for things, such as going to school, working on a project, planning a trip. These are all with a future event in mind – school graduation, project completion, a place experienced. These are good and lofty goals.

Yet, our planning and projects co-exist with our challenge of being present while we're doing all of that.

In this very moment.

So easily said, and not so easily done.

Inner Heart Guidance

He writes: "At the center of your being, you have the answer."

Perhaps this center is our Inner Heart. When we are guided by our Inner Heart, our steps of doing are taken from an interior reference point. But how do we "hear" the guidance of our Inner Heart?

Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) have a simple way to support themselves to access their intuition. Use of the TRT® hands-on connects us consciously to universal, supportive energy that allows us to better "hear" our inner heart.

When we are guided from within, and not from outside of ourselves, our doing reflects our being; the two are in alignment.

 

Micro-Cosmos, Up Close And Personal

/

Welcome To The Micro-Cosmos

In our last post, we looked at the Macro-Cosmos in terms of galaxies and the Constellation of Leo.

Now let's explore nature in the other direction, into the Micro-Cosmos.

We could choose many levels of the micro-world, going in as far as neutrons and protons. However, we'll stop at the level of insects and snails.

The World Of Tiny Creatures

In the first photo, a spider guards her eggs. Captured in macro-photography, we are drawn to these magical orbs. Photographer is Ondrej Pakan.

Pakan has over 2,000 photos on 500px that represent hours of patience and getting up early with the dew and the dawn to capture, up-close, the insect world. It's a world we don't normally see from our vantage point.

Here, we have morning dewdrops on a fly.

Pakan writes:

 
“It’s always a big surprise for me to find out how many species, forms and colors exist in this kingdom.
I see the things around me a bit differently after each visit in this micro-world.
I try to look at them in their own way.”
 

Feathers On Mosquito Antennae

Lush feather-like hairs on the antennae of this mosquito capture the slightest movement of air. Many humans would like to have lashes this lovely. 

The breath of life breathes upon all tiny animals and they spring into existence. They pirouette in the dance of life in their miniature worlds. Their secret lives spin around us and we stand beside them in the same experience of birth and death. 

Who can say their lives are of "less" importance?

Perhaps we don't need a designation of greater or lesser.

Curious Snails

Take a look at the photography of Vyacheslav Mischenko. His work focuses on the wonders in the land of snails. 

In this link is a collection of many of his snail photos. You'll come away with a new appreciation of this under-valued creature.

Mischenko's photos capture the evident curiosity of these snails. 

They may move at a much slower pace in comparison to us, yet snails are not any less vibrant with life and wonder.

Liiving With A Heart Wide Open

When we run through the days of our lives, we tend to scurry past everything and miss the details around us.

We can pause, even just for a moment, and open our hearts to all the quiet secrets the world has to share with us

Explore Our Micro-Cosmos

Students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) can use their TRT® hands-on in their heart center to bring them more in touch with listening to and becoming aware of the little ones on our planet.

In our meditation, we start from where we began, as star stuff with the Macro-Cosmos and then travel to the Micro-Cosmos where we share this planet with all of God's creatures. 

From stars in the sky to a spider web at our feet:

 
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff.”
— Carl Sagan
 
 

Macro-Cosmos, Journey Into The Galaxies

/

Macro-Cosmos – Heading Out Into The Universe

Out, out we fly... we're heading into space to explore the macro-cosmos of our galaxies. 

With a big hat-tip to the traveling Hubble Space Telescope and the generosity of NASA for sharing its photos, we zoom into space.

This galaxy near the Constellation of Leo reminds us we are in the astrological sign of Leo (23 July to 22 August).

 

NGC 3190 – A Spiral Galaxy

NGC 3190 is a spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms and it spans about 75,000 light years across. Finely textured dust lanes surround the brightly glowing center of this picturesque spiral. It is visible with a small telescope pointed toward the Constellation of Leo.

NGC 3190 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. Located 80 million light years away, it is a part of the Hickson 44 galaxy group (in case you need directions on how to get there).

The upper photo of NGC 3190 has a universal shade of blue added to it and it has been turned on its side from the photo below that NASA shared in 2010.

How would we designate up or down or sideways in the universe. Would that exist in deep space?

How Do We See Our Cosmos?

Our concept of colors in the universe is also based on our oh-so-human eyes. A friend pointed this out to me years ago. If you lived near the bright-light center of a spiral galaxy, you could not have these human eyes. Not only these eyes, but also this skin. You'd never survive such a bright, burning light.

How would we appear if we lived closer towards the center of a galaxy?

What kind of physical form would we have? Would it even be a physical form? 

Our minds and imagination stretch beyond the edge of the known world. 

Messier 96 - NGC 3368, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo.

Bring The Macro-Cosmos To Your Meditations

Students of The Radiance Technique® can use an image of a galaxy or particular stars in their meditations with their TRT® hands-on.

Constellation Of Leo

The constellation of "Leo the Lion" is mapped out in the stars. The stars are numbered below with a description:

 
“You can use the Sickle of Leo the Lion to gauge your sky.

Starting with 1st magnitude Regulus we skip a star and come to 2nd magnitude (gamma) Leonis, then as we go up, the back of Leo’s head and his nose are both 3rd magnitude stars, and his topknot is 4th magnitude.

His eye, half-way between the nose and topknot, is 5th magnitude and if you can see it, indicates you have an excellent sky.

His ear is an itty-bitty 6th magnitude star which, if you can see it, tells you that your sky is the best you’re going to get.”
— Randy Culp
 

Leo The Lion

Circling back to Planet Earth, we embrace our own Leo, the majestic lion of Africa.

In ancient Egypt:

 
“The lion represented the ferocious heat of the sun and was seen in the likeness of Sekhmet who is the Egyptian goddess known as the Eye of Ra. She is the power that protects the good and annihilates the wicked.”
 

Now that we've traveled out to the Constellation of Leo and visited our earthly lion, you may be wishing that you were born under the sign of Leo.

Not to worry, there's a little bit of Leo the Lion in all of us.

Magic Magnifying Glass Pics

 
 

A Butterfly In Your Radiant Hand

/

The Fluttering Of A Butterfly's Wings

 
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which,
if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
— unknown
 

Sharmon Davidson, artist

 

Butterflies Inspire Our Imagination

The metamorphose from wiggly caterpillar to cocoon to "flying flower" enchants us. 

Butterflies flit about our gardens, sipping from flower centers, in the intricate dance of pollination. 

Is that a smoldering tango that we see between butterfly and flower? Or an airy waltz?

Our hearts smile as we watch a butterfly's crooked flight path on the warm air. These tiny creatures fill our sense of sight, but what if we could perceive them at a micro-cosmos level?

What if we could actually hear their feathered wings in flight, beating upon the air, just as we can hear a bird's wings?

What if we could hear the siren song of a flower as it calls, coaxing the butterfly to take a delicate sip?

What a melodious mini-duet that would be.

A Butterfly In Your Radiant Hand

To enjoy a butterfly, stomping and yelling are not terribly effective. Rather, focus on moving gently or holding still. "BE the flower," I can hear the Zen teacher intoning.

Imagine yourself sitting in a meditation. You radiate such stillness and peace that even a butterfly feels safe to rest gently in your Radiant Hand – like the first image above.

You may not actually have butterflies landing in your hand (although you never know), yet this is a lovely image for our meditations. It supports us to remember the energy of stillness and goodwill to all creatures of this Earth.

 
“Only your surface is disturbed; in your deepness there is stillness and total tranquility.”
— Bryant McGill
 

Butterfly Spiral In Your Heart

In this artwork a thread comes from another level and then turns in a counterclockwise spiral within the heart – imagery that reminds me how The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) gives us access to universal energy. The use of TRT® hands-on allows us to go deeper, to become more aware of the loving energy in our hearts and in existence.

Stillness Within Us

Exploring the energy of stillness we see that it can be found within us. The world spins ever faster, we, ourselves, are running madly sometimes, yet this stillness continues to bear silent witness.

Are we aware of it?

 
“When you gaze out on a quiet, peaceful meadow, next to a still pond, under a motionless blue sky, you wonder how the noisy, busy cacophony of life could have arisen from such silent, motionless beginning. ”
— M..
 
 

Meditative Stillness In A Galloping World

/

Meditative Stillness

 
“Meditation is the journey from movement to stillness,
sound to silence.”
— Sri Sri
 

A lovely meme from the The Art of Living organization reminds us of the meditative process of movement to stillness.

However, because our lives are not a straight line, but rather an ongoing spiral – meditation also takes us back again from stillness to movement.

We are always in motion, but the balance between stillness and movement often becomes askew.

Our Modern To-Do List

Our modern lives are stuffed full of activities all the time. I'll bet you noticed. Upload a photo on Facebook, make sure you tweet something, email, text, call someone, watch a video. In the meantime you should also follow everyone else's Facebook posts, tweets, emails and texts.

Go to the workplace: work, work, work. 

Go back home: sleep, sleep, sleep.

Go out, go in, go to, go from... go, go, go.

Hurry up and work. Hurry up and sleep. Get up and do it all over again.

Stillness does not rank high on the to-do list.

Do More With Less

In the workplace, the dreaded phrase "do more with less" is used to justify squeezing more work out of you with less staff and resources to support the workload. Instead of being a terrible thing that should be corrected, "do more with less" has become a workplace badge of honor.

"I work 16 hours a day!" co-workers yell as a battle-cry, "Look at me, that must mean I'm important!"

It's incredible how skilled we are at turning things inside-out and backwards.

Caught in the dusty whirlwind of outer activity, I picture myself galloping like a horse from activity to activity, to yet another activity, and on and on, ad nauseum. Never stopping long enough to catch my breath, to gather my thoughts, or to look up at the bigger picture.

Galloping, galloping, galloping...

Have you noticed in our fast-paced world, there is never a lack of things to be galloping to or from?

Wild Horses Galloping

But we are not herds of wild horses thundering on the Great Plains; we are humans in search of our awakening. Part of that process involves stopping, sitting with stillness and holding space for awareness in our breath. As we master stillness, we learn to bring greater awareness to our "galloping." Galloping with awareness. In motion with consciousness.

All this galloping made me think of a popular song from my youth – Wildfire. In the old days of driving down country backroads in a 3-on-the-column Rambler, the AM radio blared and Wildfire was a top hit.


Michael Martin Murphey, the songwriter, tells us much of this song blossomed from a dream. In his Story Behind The Song 'Wildfire' he shares:

 
“The song came from deep down in my subconsciousness.
My grandfather told me a story when I was a little boy about a legendary ghost horse that the Indians talked about.
In 1936, author J. Frank Dobie identified this ghost horse story as the most prominent one in the lore of the Southwest.”
— Michael Martin Murphey
 

Murphey recognized the fluidity of the symbolism in the verses and wisely resisted trying to limit its interpretation, leaving it instead to each listener.

Some of the deeper meaning in this song has to do with cycles – how we come and go from this planet. The hoot owl can be a harbinger not just of death, but of a great transition.

An aging, weathered farmer comes to the end of his life and he rides freely in the wind with Wildfire. The name Wildfire harkens to the inner fire burning brightly inside all of us.

 

The Power Of Saying Yes In Your Life

/

The Power Of Saying Yes In Wholeness

YES is powerful.

But, too often we think NO is more powerful.

No to others. No to ourselves.

That's an illusion.

YES is what gives us the power to support ourselves, to affirm ourselves.

YES has movement in it. NO is full stop.

The challenge, and yet elegant part of the process, is that when you must say "no" – how do you do so, and still say it as an affirming "yes" to Wholeness?

Yes Means Yes?

Elna Baker explored this notion in one of her personal life-stories entitled Yes Means Yes? and presented it on stage at The Player's Club, filmed with The Moth, in New York City.

I heard her entire monologue on my car radio while listening to NPR, cruising down darkened roads after seeing the super full moon on San Francisco Bay. It somehow seemed fitting to have this story accompany me on my ride home. (Caveat: there is a "spicy word" spoken, but only at one point in the story.)


Elna Baker discovered that sometimes when she says "no" – she is, in fact, saying "yes" to herself. She is affirming her life choices.

Now Wait Just A New York Minute

You might be saying to yourself, but wait, there are a lot of things to which we need to say "no."

True.

Whenever you say "no" – you could phrase it in a way that supports you. It can be as simple as: I'm not going out tonight (no), because I am going to stay in and rest and care for myself (yes). Obviously, this is an internal dialogue. You don't have to explain this out loud to others.

Furthermore, it doesn't have to do with being a "yes-person" which carries a negative connotation.

Merriam-Webster defines a "yes-person" as:

 
“a person ... who agrees with everything that someone says: a person who supports the opinions or ideas of someone else in order to earn that person’s approval. ”
 

The YES affirmation we are referring to is something that contributes to our well-being. It's based on what is important inside of us, not on someone else's approval. 

Saying Yes In Many Languages

If your maternal language is not English, just substitute the word in the language that has the most emotional meaning for you.

Or, explore YES in the various languages you speak. Maybe you'll find that one has more meaning for you.

Just say YES to your life.