Merlian News January 2016 Newsletter
This Month’s Recommended Merlian News Articles:
Merryn’s Musings
I fell in love with The Bodhi Tree the first time I visited the famous LA store in the late 70s. Stuffed to the brim with rare books, crystals, Tibetan flags, Buddha statues and more, the store quickly became a favorite of mine. The owners invited conversation, browsing, or curling up with a book for hours if you wanted. In an age before Amazon or the Internet, they either stocked or would order any book you desired, and getting the phone call that “your book is in” was always a happy event.
Liminal Moments by Cheryl Shainmark
Take A Walk on the Wild Side: Encounters With Animals in Nature
Most of us have had the experience — wonderful, heart-stopping, sometimes terrifying — of unexpectedly encountering an animal in the wild. It may be the tranquil sight of deer off in the woods, or a hawk circling in the canyons of Manhattan. It can be scary, as in some of the recent bear sightings on the East Coast, or inspire reverence for the raw beauty of the creature sighted.
Dreams
Action This Day: A Dreamer’s Wish For the New Year
Robert Moss writes, “I have just received the best ever dreamer’s wish for the New Year. It comes from Virginie Pols, a wonderfully gifted dreamer, artist and teacher of Active Dreaming in Switzerland. She offers it in both French and English: Que cette année, nous soyons dignes de nos plus grands rêves! This year, may we be worthy of our biggest dreams! I love this because it reminds us that dreams require action. If we do not take action to honor and embody our biggest dreams in our lives, they may fly away. To lose a big dream is a sad thing. It can even amount to losing a vital piece of our soul…”
Conscious Eating
The Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
Old wives’ tales have credited apple cider vinegar with everything from curing warts to making your hair shiny. Now there’s increased evidence that adding some ACV to your diet does have health benefits. Note: Some studies report similar benefits from rice or wine vinegar, but not with balsamic.
Animal World
New Research Indicates Fish May Be Conscious and Feel Emotions
Earlier this week scientists reported new findings indicating that fish may have consciousness and feel emotions like mammals. From www.eurekalert.org we read: Researchers… have for the first time observed an increase in body temperature of between two and four degrees in zebra fish, when these are subjected to stressful situations. This phenomenon is known as emotional fever, as it is related to the emotions that animals feel in the face of an external stimulus and it has even been linked, not without some controversy, with their consciousness.
WEBSITE OF THE MONTH:
Media/People
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan – Now a PBS Documentary
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” With that seven-word maxim, US-based journalist Michael Pollan distills a career’s worth of reporting into a prescription for reversing the damage being done to people’s health by today’s industrially driven Western diet. Pollan offers an answer to one of the most urgent questions of our time: What should I eat to be healthy? From www.pbs.org
Thank you once more, for your positive feed back and support!
Merryn Jose – Editor In Chief & Publisher