I’m sure you know, wherever you live, some strange things are happening to the weather and climate. Places that used to be warm have turned colder…places that used to be cold, have turned warmer. A storm can strike any town or city out of the blue…appear from nowhere, touch down, do tremendous damage, and disappear, all within the span of five minutes. A town near where I live recently had such an occurrence. Friends of mine who had lived there for more than twenty years never saw anything like it. A storm went straight down the main street, ripped up every tree in its path, firing off hail and then it was gone, leaving behind destruction that merited the Red Cross.

Yesterday I read about a British World War 2 airplane that crashed on a mountaintop in Iceland, being discovered 60 years after the crash. All of the airmen on board were frozen in time. The amount of snow and ice that had covered the airplane for that length of time has melted. What other discoveries will we find as more ice melts?

I could go on and on mentioning stories that I’ve read recently and I’m sure you could add a few of your own…..through my newsletter I receive many E-mails from people talking about the weather in their neck of the woods. A lot of us are just plain baffled. I am not a doomsayer….but it doesn’t take much to admit something is out of balance. Many out there, some very rational people, believed that when we chimed in this past New Year 2000, the computers would crash, and havoc would fill the air. Here we are 8 months later, looking at the skies and the land and wondering what they’re trying to tell us.
There are many things out of our control. We can only do so much, but one thing we can do is be prepared as much as possible. Keep on hand water, food, flashlights, batteries, etc., for anything that can happen out of the blue. If nothing happens, wonderful! But if there is a storm, a drought, a fire, being prepared can save your life. We may not be able to control the weather……but we must always respect it. Near my house, over the past 6 months, I was told to remove any dead trees that I saw close to the house. It wasn’t the dead trees that fell…..but the live ones. 3 trees, a distance away from the house, thank God, on 3 separate occasions collapsed right in front of my eyes. Not scrawny little trees…..but trees that look like they’ve been around for at least 150 years. Go figure….you think you understand Nature, then out of nowhere she does the opposite. Who knows the answers? Global warming? The end of the world? or just a cycle we’re going through. Whatever….there are people getting hurt from things they don’t see coming. Weather conditions that have never existed in certain parts of the world before. All we can do is take care of those we love and help our communities and last but not least, be as prepared as much as possible. One more thing…..we can never say too many prayers. I can’t see the bigger picture…..but maybe Somebody Upstairs does.

Blessings to you and yours,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

In our lifetimes, we all run the risk of a corner of our hearts turning cold. It usually happens when fear keeps us from expressing ourselves, or some event hurts us emotionally, and the only way we think we can survive is to freeze sections of our hearts. The human heart can only hold so much pain before it reacts.

We all come into this world with warm hearts…..hearts that can’t seem to take in enough Love…..every baby needs to be held, and to be kept warm and safe. In some countries women hold their babies strapped to their bodies all day long, so that the child never feels “left.” As we grow older, we still have the same heart needing the same Love, but events can slowly begin to give us a “change of heart.”

Fear is usually the beginning of the freeze of the human heart. Fear comes in many shapes and forms….we all know when we feel a sense of fear. Fear can be masked in the form of what we call “Racism”….”Violence”….”Hatred”….there are many shapes human fear can take form in. It never goes away by suppressing it. The only way Fear goes away is by recognizing it for what it is, and by talking about it. Talking freely about it. Hearing all sides of the Fear…..from the one who fears, and the one who may be feared. Open dialogue can erase human fear. It takes courage to unfreeze sections of the human heart…..but the end result is a heart that can feel warmth again.
In the world we can try to control human emotions, but the problem is, human emotions cannot be changed by governments, or suppression, or individual groups.

The most dangerous tactic of all is to try to repress the fear of the human heart….it must be dealt with openly in order for it to heal, just as a wound has to be cleansed before it can begin to go away. “Racism”, “Violence” and “Hatred”, all fears in the human heart, are wounds that must heal. Ask yourself what happens to a wound that doesn’t have a chance to heal? It invades the body further, causing greater damage…..not only to the one wounded, but to those nearby. We are all affected by the walking wounded, whether we want to face it or not. Just read the newspapers.

The Human Heart has a huge capacity to Love. It is born that way. It is the cloud of mankind’s ignorance that hovers over the innocent Human Heart. It is the job of each of us to try to see beyond the weaknesses of Mankind, and promote that which strengthens our capacity for Love.

Keep your heart open,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

In every home there is a treasure chest. The trick is to know where to look to find it. This treasure is all around us everyday. It’s not hidden under the rug, in the basement, in the attic….it is right in front of our eyes. Each member of every family contributes over the course of a lifetime to the treasure chest, knowingly and unknowingly. What is this treasure chest? Family knowledge that has accumulated and been passed down from generation to generation.

Grandma and Grandpa have lived their lives moving from stage to stage, which has brought them to where they are now. What they have experienced and seen is priceless. They know the pitfalls, the successes and failures. The Moms and Dads have also had their share of ups and downs….all that knowledge at our fingertips, and so few of us take the time to touch it, digest it, and use it, yet, each weekend we will wander through bookstores, looking for that special collection of words that is going to transform our lives….while all the while that knowledge is sitting right at home, waiting for us to open the cover and read. Who better can understand what life can throw at us, then those who have already gone through the majority of it? If we could just one night load the tape recorder, press record, and ask the questions…what jewels could spring forth? We turn on our television sets, listen to salespeople telling us that if we do this or buy that we will be happier….when across the couch sitting there could be a guide to help us find the high road to happiness and peace.
We all have our differences…we may have numerous agreements with Grandma and Grandpa, or Mom and Dad….but in many cases they have “been there” and “done that.” We may not totally agree with their advice, but many times somewhere in the conversation is that one line that fires out at us like a lightning bolt, that changes our perspective and vision of the future. The treasure chest sitting there, where everyone around it has the key. All it takes is that hand to place it in the lock and turn it.

Each family has a member who is an expert at something. It could be money, crafts, cooking, or electronics, etc. One can only imagine what can happen if all these experts are acknowledged and pooled together. Of course, we would have to suppress our egos at knowing that we don’t know everything, but after that, the experts would freely contribute their years of knowledge on their subject of expertise. A group of people made up of family members who share information…a treasure chest indeed. All it takes is one individual to start the process in motion, and one would be very surprised the level of excitement that encircles a family that is out to solve some fundamental problems that afflict them all. We share more than just DNA with our loved ones….but a history of life experiences.

Open the treasure,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

One of the hardest, most difficult, and sometimes frustrating things that we have to do in life is make decisions. Where do we live? Where do we work? Who do we marry? What do we name our children? Etc. These are choices that have a profound affect on our lives. It’s almost never easy, but to not make the choices can pass the decision to someone else. When that happens, the control we have over our own lives diminishes.

One way to tackle decisions is to seek out as much information about the subject as possible. Scoop it up and lay it out on the table. Look at all the angles, and choices, and then start a process of elimination. Ask yourself, what don’t I want? And as the rejections mount, what’s eventually left will be a choice between one and three solutions. Yes, a process of elimination. Decisions are good things….it forces us to look at our future, and sometimes examine what we don’t want to grapple with. Decisions can affect us directly or indirectly, and of course, other people’s decisions can affect us too. But for us, most of the time, it’s hard enough to handle the decisions we personally have to make. We can seek out different points of view, pray for guidance, but eventually the decision lays in our own hands.

Here in the United States we are now heading into the full scope of the election season, where many citizens will be voting for candidates at the national, state, and local level. Over the next few months we will hear comments made on all different points of view, in regard to who are the best candidates. As in life, making these decisions can also be extremely difficult. As before, place all of your information on the table from the candidates, and ask, Who best represents me and my family? A wise person once said, “If you don’t vote, don’t complain.”

Decisions stay with us until the day we die. At each stage in our lives comes a new set of choices. Each time, spread them out….take a consensus of your feelings, and decide. You decide….not the guy down the street, not the woman around the corner….you. We are responsible for our lives….it rests on us to decide what’s best in our lives. There are so many things out there that we don’t have any control over, that when the times arise that give us a chance to choose, we should welcome it, not fear it.

Be informed,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

It’s very easy to get caught up in life’s day to day activities, as if it’s some life or death situation. I don’t know about you, but about once or twice a week, I have a tendency to magnify things out of proportion. Yes, life is important, but isn’t it also meant to be fun?

It’s almost become unacceptable to laugh at ourselves…we always seem to take ourselves and loved ones way too seriously. There has to be a hidden meaning behind every line that somebody is saying…..well, sometimes there isn’t…it’s just a joke…. nothing more. A friend of mine recently mentioned to me, “There is no such thing as a joke. It’s really somebody’s way of telling you something.” I’m sorry, but that’s not always correct. Humor has become, in some quarters, something that only belongs in comedy clubs. The reason Seinfeld was such a successful show was because it poked fun at how seriously we live our lives. Each one of the characters searched to find the answers each week to their dilemmas, until at some point during the show, either Jerry, or one of the other crew stopped everyone in their tracks and said, “Are we crazy? We’re talking about a Jacuzzi here!!!” I remember one episode distinctly, where the parking spot outside Jerry’s apartment was looked upon as a piece of gold that someone had to watch and protect to make sure that it was available for George to park his car. What’s sad is, in many cities, parking has become a major occupation!!

Another friend of mine recently went into the city to look for the best price for a camera he was hoping to purchase. He went uptown…he went downtown….he went everywhere searching for the perfect price, until he found the store that had it. The gleam in his eye telling me that he got the best price imaginable, was breathtaking. Then I asked him, “Tell me Jim, while you were driving around, how much gasoline did you burn in your car, and what was the wear and tear on your nerves and vehicle?” A puzzled look came over his face, while he calculated the $25.00 gas tank that was used, the noise that his car is now making, and the beads of sweat that ran down his face. Factoring in all of this, did he really get the best price?

One last story I would like to share with you is about my friend Sherry. She was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer, rushed to the emergency room, and sent on a stretcher to the operating table. All the while Sherry was hysterically laughing! The nurse looked at the doctor and said, “This girl is dying….why is she laughing?” Thankfully, Sherry survived and is now doing very well. I asked her, “Sherry, why were you laughing?” She replied, “I realized at that point how temporary and hysterical Life truly is…and I fully understood how seriously I had taken each moment…rarely allowing myself to relax, and feel joy.” These days, one thing I can really say, I rarely see Sherry without a smile on her face……

The weekends are my time to kick back and relax. I try to learn to never forget to find the joy and humor in my life. All the rest takes up it’s own share of my time…but the humor………that’s up to me.

Keep Smiling,

love, Jennifer
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

This is a story about a little dog named Joey. As I have mentioned before, I am the proud owner of 3 little dogs named Elsie, Freddie and Phoebe. As you can imagine, taking care of 3 dogs can be quite challenging at times, but believe me, I get back much more than I give from these 3 little creatures. I fully intended to draw the line at 3…….until one day I paid a visit to my local pet shop and saw through the window a little puppy that looked just like Freddie. At first I said to myself, “I don’t need another dog! It’ll only be a matter of time before this one is purchased.” After a month, I noticed nobody had paid much of an interest to the little dog. I asked the store owner, “What seems to be the problem?” She mentioned that the story on the television show Dateline had hurt her business. The story involved how dogs are treated at puppy mills and shipped nationwide to many local pet shops. She assured me her dogs did not come from those puppy mills. Perhaps….or perhaps not….but this little dog was still sitting in his cage after being in the store two months later.

After two more months I decided I was going to take the dog. As I pulled up to my front door my 3 little dogs noticed that in the box was another dog. I asked myself, “I hope they can all get along.” One way or another, this little dog that I named “Joe,” was joining our family. I was determined to make it work.
The first few days each dog was checking out the new arrival, testing their turf, seeing where they fit. 3 dogs were working out becoming part of a group of 4. The first week I was fascinated how these animals worked out their differences, assigning little tasks to one other, developing new relationships, and strengthening the emotional bonds between them. Joe, in a way, is very lucky. He has 3 great teachers to help him adapt to our family faster, and lo and behold, has he adapted! Now 2 weeks later Elsie, Freddie, Phoebe and Joe have bonded together, settled their differences, without losing their individuality.

The point to this story….surely we humans can’t be less smart than dogs, right? How do we, in our lives, settle our differences? Peacefully, I hope. Can we all exist in this world as individuals, inside and outside of groups? We have a lot to learn from animals….wouldn’t it be strange and interesting if at the next Peace Summit or General Assembly, members of the representing countries had to observe how puppies bond and grow together? Maybe there’s a reason why dogs are called “Man’s Best Friend.”

Embrace Love,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

To be Human, and live in this world, there are a number of Laws that are given to us physically. If we are to have any kind of prolonged peace, we must bring ourselves to accept these Laws as fact. As always, I’m sure you too can add to this list to make it more personal.

Number One: We are born and we die. Living is what we do in-between.
Number Two: We will get sick, and get well, many times over a lifetime.
Number Three: We come into this world as newborn babies…depending most of the time on parents to do a good job at raising us. Some succeed, some don’t. Mistakes are made, which we later have to correct.
Number Four: For some strange reason, we nurture and build relationships through our lives, and one by one through age, they are taken from us. Sometimes accidents too can bring about sorrow and loss.
Number Five: Some will be born in prosperous countries….others surrounded by extreme poverty.
Number Six: Human pain cannot truly be measured. One person’s turmoil may not be as severe as the next, but to him or her, the pain is just as relevant.
Number Seven: Each person has to come to terms with his or her physical limitations.
Number Eight: There are no perfect bodies or minds. Some are thinner, or heavier than others, and we all make mental mistakes.
Number Nine: If one is to truly learn and grow through Life, eventually our physical existence will hit a wall where we start questioning why we are here, what we are to learn, and what’s it all about, Alfie? (eh!)
Number Ten: There are extremely kind, considerate and wonderful Human Beings. There are also some of the most evil examples of Human Life.
Number Eleven: In order to continue living, we people of all different religions and races have to find a way to get along.
Number Twelve: Karma exists….what we put out, will come back to us, in one form or another. I know it looks like some get away with murder, but do they really?

One personal thought I would like to add….There is only so much Life to live in the physical sense here. At some point, each one of us is confronted with taking the next step, to establish a personal relationship with the Creator or God. Hey, somebody built all this for some special reason.

I receive many letters from people trying to understand and come to grips with what happens here on Earth. These Laws of Earth, if looked at and acknowledged, help empower the individual to move forward. As I mentioned, you too can add to this list. It’s all a learning process until the day we pass….and go on to a “Higher Education.”

Keep moving forward,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

The day we are born, instantly our brains start taking in information through our senses, at a rapid rate. In the best of circumstances, in a loving family that takes the time to nurture, with the experience to understand how important the role of parenting is, all is well. On the other hand, as many of us are not perfect, it is very easy to make simple mistakes that can echo for many years. There are no mysteries here…mistakes that are made are carried forward far into the future. We can blame whomever we like, but most of us spend numerous years trying to overcome those mistakes.

Bad habits can easily be passed from generation to generation, through families, until one day it falls on one son or one daughter to break the destructive pattern. An example: Alcoholism can simply run through families as far back as two hundred years, while the family members never fully understand how things got so carried away in regard to alcohol. We all know friends who can drink two bottles of wine, get up, and walk a straight line, while there are others who, after two glasses, start to feel dizzy and boisterous. We all enter the world inheriting some form of baggage, and as I have said, if looked at closely, the mysteries of how things can go astray can be understood.
We look to point the finger of blame at why we have problems. Instead of looking at the problems and initiating solutions, it’s easier to hold others responsible for our present and future actions. Hey look, it’s not easy being a parent. Even harder today! But at some point we inherit the responsibilities in our own lives and must look at and correct what we see that is wrong.

This essay is called “Programming,” for a reason……look at life as it is……where we were born, how we were raised, and what education we received, have a profound affect on our ability to succeed in life. This is called “Programming.” The mind that is a blank slate at birth, receives input each year of life. The input the child receives over time dictates the roads that are chosen. Isn’t it interesting…when the FBI or law enforcement are looking for a serial killer, by the method he or she commits the crime, gives off clues to the psychological makeup of the perpetrator. Many serial killers end up to be children that were from abusive families. Pain shows itself eventually one way or another.

It’s never too late for anybody to overcome their problems, if they seek out help. Once we acknowledge the problem, we then can begin the process of healing and recovery. But we human beings are a stubborn lot….it’s very hard for us to see ourselves sometimes as anything other than close to perfect. But once we admit we’re not, then we can start to become better people, until one day we become the Programmer…..

Fine tune the dials,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

Almost all of us live next door, on a street in a neighborhood, close to somebody. The person or persons may be just like us, or totally different…but one thing you can almost count on, they won’t be identical to us. Ninety percent of the time they may totally agree with us, but there is still that ten percent to deal with. We are all in our lives, at home, at work, at play, walking Diplomats. We represent our way of life….while others represent their world. Like good Diplomats, the goal is to present ideas, listen to others, and find common ground.

In a world made up of so many people, Diplomacy has become more important than ever. The attitude of “My way or the highway,” is a thing of the past. A little story I would like to share with you:

A friend of mine lived next door to this couple that had a large barking dog. The dog’s name was Cyril. He barked out in the back garden all day and most of the evening. My friend paced the floor, wondering how to get the dog to stop barking. A number of people mentioned to him numerous solutions, like “Get your own barking dog, to bark back,” “Shower the dog with water,” or “Blast loud music.” My friend eventually decided to go next door, to talk to the dogs owner. He knocked on the door, said “Hi, I live next door….I think you have a wonderful dog, but I would appreciate it if you could tone him down a little.” Upon hearing this, the next door neighbor apologized for his dog, not realizing what a nuisance he had become. Two days passed, and the next door neighbor arrived at my friend’s house with a hot apple pie that came from the local bakery, as a way of saying “I’m sorry.” The moral of the story is, before even considering other solutions, my friend decided it was best to go and talk to the dog’s owner, politely and calmly. Who would have known that because the owner of the dog had a wife who was dying of cancer, he had totally zoned out in his mind that their dog was making a raucous outside. While all thought that this man didn’t care about the noise from his dog, little did they know the pain the man was dealing with.

Diplomacy may not always work, and you may eventually have to contact the authorities, but so many times we totally misunderstand each other. Communication is a strange thing. We think we know what someone is trying to say, but we could be way off. We all deal with so many problems during the day, it becomes not so much what we can see and hear, but what we can’t.
As we head off into the world each morning, we are the Diplomats of our home. And as any good Diplomat will tell you, “We all have to find a way to get along.”

Shake a hand,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon

After last week’s essay “The Core,” the following few days, more and more of my thoughts on the two parts of who we are (the physical and spiritual) started coming to the surface. In my own life, I have found that I can go out, do some shopping, go to the movies and have a little fun, but after awhile I start to get an eerie feeling of depletion in my body. What are these feelings? I’ve asked myself. They never seem to go away until I start to do things that help me get centered in my life. In some strange way, material gratification lasts only so long. I have also found that this form of gratification doesn’t help relieve stress over the long term. Our health is necessary if we are to continue to accomplish our missions and goals. If all we do is focus on the physical and material aspects of life, eventually the well runs dry. I can say from experience that for me to get to this understanding has not always been easy, but once one enters the belief that the soul too needs input, and nourishment, things start making more sense.

Overall we as human beings sometimes find it hard to see things that we need the most. A Priest or Reverend can preach every Sunday about how important prayer is to us……or a speaker may mention how much God loves us, but for many it goes in one ear and out the other, until we are faced with a crisis. Then the mind opens up almost as if it has received a dose of smelling salts. For the masses, the benefits of the Words of God can sometimes be not looked upon as essential for our day to day life….but once one starts to use terms as healthy, stress-relieving, meditative, and centering, lo and behold, those words become valuable. The tools are out there to enrich our lives…we just have to use them.

I used to believe that God and Heaven were this great big dome that just sat out there for all of us to grab at when need be. As the years went by I began to understand that the connection between God and in my case, Jesus Christ, is a personal one. It is a connection that is with me from morning until night. The more I contribute to that relationship, the stronger it gets…and over time topics such as, sickness, life, death, and after-death take on a whole new meaning. The relationship my soul has had with Heaven has greatly enhanced my life.

Each day we rise and make our choices and replenish ourselves, physically and spiritually. As much as we enjoy the material gratifications of life we cannot forget to contribute equally to the other half of ourselves….our souls.

From one soul to another,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon