{ RAH RAH RAW

\”Known by the earth,\” you are. Loved by the earth, you are… There is a confluence of energy that wraps around you that says, \”I know you. You belong here. It is appropriate that you step upon the planet.\”

Completing the cycle was a lesson illustrated for me in two ways this year: composting our human waste for garden soil & slaughtering our own meat. The latter is my focus today.

In homesteading adventures, I have now met chickens, goats, turkey, pig, cow and sheep! I can’t say I sought them out, but upon exploring “the farm” scene often enough – you do get your goat. As a meat eater, I have a natural curiosity about my carnivorous ways. So I find myself on the land, prepared to understand the process by hand. Here is some experience of it:

I helped to butcher and process two wild white tail deer. Respect and honor was given for their sacrifice; we were gracious as we shared deer burgers for lunch, in the midst of carving.

I watched a wild boar shot, bled out & butchered by a young man born and bred to do so. He had acquired his skill as a boy in the woods with his father. 

    
I collected snails and bait the catfish. We filleted them for winters keep in the freezer.

    

For a month, I fed two mother goats with their three kids. We drank the milk they gave, made farmers cheese and transported the boy to slaughter.
    
I shepherded sheep to the shearer, skirted their fleeces and sent each ewe back to pasture. Two years later, I have learned to wash, spin and crochet this rough material into warm hats and scarves.

I harvest chicken and duck eggs, cared for a couple of turkeys, but never have I twisted the neck of a foul. Some of these things sound brutal, but the message that I am trying to convey is that death is a necessary and very important part of the process. And because it is difficult, perhaps we must demand more care, and give greater respect to these acts …for to come full circle.

    

I have a friend who is both hunter and vegetarian: in the woods, she can kill a deer and eat it; in society, she carefully avoids meat. Personally, I crossed the country from a Maryland metropolis to California’s Coast before I experienced the real difference fresh, local, loved food makes – and how great it tastes! I had to dig in the dirt myself to feel what it was. In today’s world we can hardly to find restaurants, markets or grocers with ripe, organic, wholesome fruits & vegetables or free range meats, milk or eggs. It’s important to note that the things we eat, whether plant or animal, deserve basic love and respect in their short life because they have sacrificed for our own greater purpose. 
As I seek, so I have found greener pastures, and in it: Daisy Mae. She’s a milk cow. (And I mean milk in the most real sense of the word – none of this almond, hemp, coconut, soy, rice …water.) I admit that squeezing her juice right from the teet into my jar was …jarring. However, with experience and education, I am learning the beauty and honesty of her raw milk. I am making yogurt, and, you might say: I have found the WHEY.
There is a wordless grace to our relationship with domesticated animals; every time the cow nudges you it\’s a reminder that this is a cooperative experience of connecting to source. The practice of milking is also very palpable; be careful not to get shit in the bucket. There is a necessary dedication to technique, but also care: a syphoning meditation. After three days, we were starting to get along. Daisy Mae’s natural gift is nestled right there: in this stunning relationship that has existed and evolved over too many, many years to count. From it we can place cream, butter & cheese on our table. Thank you, dear. And now, here – in Kryon\’s words…

I speak of the precious animals all the time and how they\’re here to service humanity and how they do it so completely. I\’ve spoken about how some of them are here to be eaten. Many don\’t like to hear this, but understand that collectively the animals understand this. They have to be part of the Human food chain, since humanity doesn\’t have the ability to grow things fast enough and distribute that food. So that\’s a service, you see? For those of you who are vegan, you might say, \”I never eat them!\” That is a choice for your health. It\’s appropriate and accurate, but doesn\’t hold true for the survival of the Human race, for animals are needed for Human nourishment and survival at the moment.

So let\’s divert for a moment and give you some valuable information about Human consumption of animal life. Many Humans need to eat them, but never understanding that the animal knew this when it came in. Is this too spooky for you? This is known by those who know of animal spirits and can see the sacrifice and appropriateness of this. It was also very well known by the ancients. But here is the question, dear Human: How do you treat them? With that kind of purpose on the planet, how do you treat them before they become your food? How did the ancients treat them? Now that\’s a hard question, isn\’t it? Let me give you an attribute of truth. Did you know the better they\’re treated, the more nutritious they\’ll be within your body? \”Kryon, please don\’t talk about that. We don\’t want to think about it.\” Dear one, if not me, then who? Listen, if these animals are willing to come and be so grand a part of the life-force of this planet and help it to vibrate higher by keeping you alive so you can make choices, don\’t they deserve respect and comfort while they are growing up? The end result will be a far better contribution to your health. Let the scientists lead the way and do some comparison studies to show that the nutritional values increase dramatically when an animal is honored during its short lifetime. The ancients knew this and honored each animal before it became part of their life-force.

-KRYON, channeled through Lee Carroll 
(Click here for Full Text)

Mythical-Jalapeno-Asiago Slug

Newly discovered, 
and perhaps never again to be found…

Climbing up to be restored, came this original creation:
A slug-bagel subspecies to be honored for all ages.
Arriving at earth\’s sea floor,
His saga mounts from the molten CENT-CORE.

The creature-rising was hot, fiery and burning to PROOf its existence:
Evidence to the world, of a miracle.
A sea bass, slugs, and cucumbers too,
Were there to see his coming through.

On the waters off our coast he surfaced.
And, floating there, took in the land.
Coastline stretched wide to either side,
But this slug took it in stride.

Following a school of salmon as they passed,
He caught the current: returning the way they had come.
Upstream, upriver, like a herd of bridling broncs,
To spawn…

And with them, rose the Jalapeno – to his occasion.
And on it, the baker sprinkled as he christened, \”Asiago on the Jalapeno!\”
T\’was done. And so it was and so it is and so it will be,
Forever more in the hearts of many.

There you have it:
the story of an – original and highly anticipated – mythical Jalapeno Asiago (the Slug that never was), a subspecies.

Since-Discovered Slug subspecies:
Slug Slimer (traditional, pictured above)
Jalapeno (shiny orange skin)
Garlic
Asiago* (rare, endangered, and/or purely mythical) 
Sesame-Pop
Puck A\’Fish Slug (mummified remains preserved in world bagel museum)
Horned slug (pictured)

Self-Inflicted Suffering

Beloved students, once again I greet you with joy and celebration for the path that each of you is following as you seek to become whole. May you have every blessing imaginable as you continue your spiritual work, both on your own behalf and that of the planet.

…In the West, often the word “suffering” is applied only to what other cultures might term “extreme suffering.” Overlooking the smaller areas of suffering in this way has thus become a Western coping strategy… The simple answer is that people suffer because they want circumstances, situations, conditions and/or relationships to be other than they are. Further, most people not only want certain things to be other than they are, they are also often strongly attached to the way they believe things should be. Here we get a peek into the old craving/aversion spectrum that sits right in the heart of all suffering...

THE GREAT NEUTRALITY

For some people, attaining neutrality is a radical notion. The mind takes off on its own course and demands: “Well what about all the injustice in the world? I can’t be neutral about that, of I’d be condoning it!” In truth, anyone who thinks that he or she can change the way the world appears in the conventional reality is wrestling with a delusion. The only thing that one can actually change is the way he or she sees the world and the conventional reality. Simply stated, you change the world in your own sphere. You learn to “brighten the corner where you are,” as the children’s song goes. The ego mind loves to extend itself way out into the broadest perspective it can muster, focusing on world conditions that are beyond its own reach. In so doing, it foten neglects the people who are right before it, with their needs and suffering going completely unheeded. Or perhaps the ego gets a little bored with those who are closest, and puts forth the vibes – if not the words – “When is she going to get over this? Will she never get a life?”

While one should, of course, hold compassion for the suffering so rampant in the world at large, the real work to be done must occur in the sphere of one’s own influence. If one has the power to benefit countless beings by making a single decision or taking some action, then by all means, he or she should make that decision or take that action. However, some folks have a tendency to lose themselves in obsessing on world conditions over which they, personally, have no power or influence. This is little more than a strategy for avoiding taking action on the goodness that needs to be expressed for those in one’s immediate sphere of experience. It is always fascinating to probe the ingenious way the mind sorts and holds such matters.

In truth, it does not matter where on this fine planet you experience suffering, or in what circumstances. If you are human, you will feel the pangs of suffering. The suffering is your call to plunge beneath the surface of that emotional density and investigate thoroughly the workings of the mind. If you return to the earlier example of taking insult from someone else’s words, upon investigation, you will discover that the suffering was in your mind. While you may have had a problem with the interaction, the other may not have. While the words may have come from the other person, the problem did not. Since the problem cannot come from the event, since all events are actually neutral until interpreted, the only source left for the arising sense of problem-ness is your own mind.

Your task, then, is to take note of how your mind holds the event and the other person, as well as the sense of problem-ness that has arisen in your awareness. As you scrutinize these parts of the experience, you can begin to unravel some of the tangled thoughts and feelings your mind has woven into the knotty web that binds you. Your emotions, which arise in response to your thoughts, give you instant feedback on your thoughts and projections, because they carry the charge that is the clue that you have not reached the level of the great neutrality.

COMPARING MIND

Negotiating the path to neutrality requires more than just analyzing the areas you hold as problems. You are seeking a full disclosure from that ego mind of yours as to how it manages to manipulate you so predictably in the areas it labels as problems. One of the ego’s most powerful ploys is the use of comparing mind. Often, the mind holds that is would be better for you (it) if things were a different way than they are (or appear to be).

TAME YOUR SUFFERING

In the final analysis, if you want to stop suffering, you have to see what your mind is holding in any given moment that causes you to suffer. In painful or highly charged moments, you simply ask yourself: “How can I hold this differently?” Then, you make a conscious decision to interrupt the mind’s patterned reactions, and you bring forth the integrity to hold yourself to doing so. In a situation, such as the one given above (receiving the insult), you might say to yourself in the moment: “Okay; I’m feeling a charge with those words; I’m feeling insulted, but I’m going to hold this experience as if the other person is just having a bad day.” In making the choice to hold the experience differently, you may even feel some internal point of tension relax. The decision not to believe every thought your mind thinks can be remarkably freeing.

This is a beginning point in “taming” the mind. In truth, nothing can arise within that you cannot tame. Whether or not you know it, you are up to the task of taming that ego mind, and you will, in fact, ultimately succeed at taming it. This taming happens when you come to outsmart it, and to do that, you must first understand how the mind works. You discover how it holds a given experience, and what meaning it places on believing that someone insulted you. By objectively investigating the mind and the ploys it uses, you discover that you can indeed enter the great neutrality. Further, you deactivate developing mind- at least until you are sure you understand what actually happened- which may be different from what the mind interprets as having happened. Ultimately, you discover that taming the mind is the way to stop suffering.

The irony of all this is that, in the end, you actually feel grateful for all those painful moments. Used well, they lead you to clarity. Thus, you thank the mind, for indeed, it is a kind of teacher for you. Reclaim your rightful creative power and just refuse to let it get by with jerking your chain so much. Learn to gently love the ego mind into wholeness. Although it will balk at the suggestion, the ego mind needs to be tamed. Once tamed, it expands from consciousness into consciousness, which is the source of your compassion, your wisdom, your healing and ultimately, your liberation.

Know that you are greatly loved and fully supported in this marvelous journey. I celebrate, as well as cherish, your desire to go free, your desire to bring yourself and the rest of the world a little less suffering.

Djwhal Khul through Kathlyn Kingdon