Mommas Pearls

Loving Pearls - Happiness

2012-02-16T16:50:00.004-05:00

Loving Pearl

“The greatest gift you can give another person is your happiness.” Abraham hicks

Affirmation
I am happy
I share my happiness with the world

Macha's Love Note
Its my birthday today and what I would love most from you is your happiness.

Mommas Pearls PS Note
There are few people in life, who have the innate ability to be celebrated by celebrating others. Such as is Macha whose birthday we celebrated today with a group of her dearest girlfriends. It was beautiful and all she wanted was to bring her favorite peeps together and honor them with a meditation.

It was beautiful to sit and bask in the light that she calls forth from each person. All we had to do was show up with our hearts. In our hearts is a true desire for your loved ones to be happy and experience love. You want the best for your children and to see them happy.

Our happiness is the result of self-work and self-love. Macha is a facilitator for both and the proof is in the pudding. All the beauty that surrounds her and how each person will show up for her fully and effortlessly. It's beautiful because she opens herself to receiving and has committed herself to her practice.

Knowing that what you bring to a space affects it. Doing your work, being true to yourself is honoring yourself and will help you hold a space of happiness, authenticity and self-love.

That is really all you ever need to bring to a party. And I received the beautiful gift of this lesson.

Happy Birthday Macha!!

Related Mommas Pearls Post: A birthday Ritual: Birthday Girls

About Macha Einbender

Macha is an integral member of the Mommas Pearls family, practical spiritual and meditation teacher, radio show hostess, mother of 2 lovies, and one of my spiritual sisters. Visit MACHA at SPIRIT JUNKIE DAILY on Gabrielle Bernstein's HERFUTURE

Reprinted and re-purposed for Mommas Pearls with loving permission from Macha, Her Future.

Loving Pearls - Mirror Mirror

2012-02-12T12:31:00.000-05:00

Sun Burst

Loving Pearl
“Clean but the mirror and the message shines forth” A course in miracles

Lovely Affirmation
I am guided loved and protected I look within and heal
I see through the eyes of love

Macha's Love Note
When you are a clear channel messages start to arrive and guide you. The messages are always available but we must get clear to hear it. The best way is meditating and praying for clarity and guidance.

Mommas Pearls PS Note
Would you drink a cloudy glass of water?

When we are clouded, our thoughts, decisions, experiences everything becomes clouded as well. We begin to get murky messages, lost in confusion standing at the fork in the road afraid to take a path, stuck at a stop sign waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Trust me I know.

Feeling the sun to shine again and finding your clarity is challenging when you've lost faith in yourself and start second guessing your own instincts.

Luckily I have an incredible support system, family and friends like Macha and Melissa that help to step in and be my mirror to reflect back that clearer version of who I really am, and she is not the murked up image that stands before me when I'm in a cloudy state. Rather, I am that glowing goddess sheathed in silk (whom Macha helped me visualize and re-connect with during a mercy meditation last week) who I all too often forget.

All of our relationships are mirrors for who we are and who we see in ourselves.

Turn inward first and set the intention to be clear and call on your support system to help you see where you got stuck at the fork in your road. They can help you take the first step down to making a clearer decision. Most importantly, be gentle.

Know you are protected in your journey and in whichever path you now choose.

Your fears, insecurities, sadness and limiting beliefs of your lower self are the stop sign. When you face them it's like learning how to diffuse a bomb or even just let it go off. You have a bomb squad in your guides, angels, spiritual partners and loved ones. You are da bomb! You are the one to remove the casing and cut the blue wire, or is it the red one (shit!!). You are responsible for the shrapnel.

With each step you will shed a fear you chose to wear as a passing fad. Each glance up at a tree lining the path you walk, you'll see the root of your insecurities and how it stemmed from a wounded place within. As the leaves fall, you'll earn back a smile, and draw closer back towards your center until you re-find your stride.

Related Mommas Pearls Post: Take an inner journey through your Labrynth.

About Macha Einbender
Macha is an integral member of the Mommas Pearls family, practical spiritual and meditation teacher, radio show hostess, mother of 2 lovies, and one of my spiritual sisters. Visit MACHA at SPIRIT JUNKIE DAILY on Gabrielle Bernstein's HERFUTURE

Reprinted and re-purposed for Mommas Pearls with loving permission from Macha, Her Future.

An Invitation from Mommas Pearls:
Take a gentle journey to remove the clouds on the next Mommas Pearls i-5 Live Tele-call series!!

L-O-V-E Spell

2012-02-07T16:11:00.000-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Tree of Love

Pearl of the Day: Clear Enchantment

♥L-O-V-E♥

Let. Old. Values. Erase.
Leave. Only. Valuable. Emotions.

The Art of Love is a work in practice. It's a state of being. A moment of grace. It's a perpetual choice. And perhaps the pearl in the song by Blessed Unions of Soul's "I believe love is the answer" reins true.

February is a month dedicated to love. Love for ourselves, our partners, our loved ones, our past leaders. It's a time to honor the heart and clear any barriers we hold up against loving unconditionally.

At the basis of every fear lay an inability to love.

Try playing like cupid and shoot arrows through whatever barriers exist to your full expression of love. Once you strike at the heart of the matter the fear dissipates and suddenly the world brightens.

Work from the inside out.

All our relationships uplift as the language and actions we take within them can now derive from a place of love. Our guard softens and lust to assert power gives way to our desire to fully embrace the world, heart wide open.

Our children naturally speak from this heart space and are conditioned to close down their heart, throw up guards and speak solely from their minds.

Our worlds would change dramatically if our hearts remained open.

♥ Starting Monday, Feb 13th, in time for Valentine's Day, we embark on a journey of self love during a 4 week Mommas Pearls Tele-Call series to set ourselves in the right frame of heart. We'll peel back the layers with exercises to help you get to the heart of the matter and we'll do so with wisdom, humility, honesty and of course lots of love. Join me.

♥$30 off V-day Gift: http://mommaspearlsseries.eventbrite.com/?discount=Pearl

Loving Pearl - Life

2012-02-06T10:47:00.001-05:00

Treasure Chest

Love Pearl
L’chaim “To Life”

Lovely Affirmation
I honor my life.
I make the most of everyday

Macha's Love Note
Today I ask you to honor your life. My good friend introduced me to Ayelet, a two year old little girl fighting for her life. Her parents shared her story and asked for prayers. Ayelet passed away early this week. This little girl spent most of her short life in pain but she found joy everyday.

Mommas Pearls PS Note
Life is a treasure chest waiting to be discovered. We never know what life has in store for us or what tomorrow will bring. In Judiasm there is a most precious pearl that if you have a choice between life and death, you should always choose life. So if there's a conflict between a birthday party and a funeral, you should attend the birthday party. However, funerals are celebrations of a life lived. There is honor and great lessons of death. Without death, you may argue, life would have less meaning.

We all face death, in each moment that passes an ending occurs and a beginning emerges. Our children's passing though their stages marks the death of one stage and emergence of a new, like newborn into infancy into toddlerhood and so on up the ladder of life's stages. At my daughter's birthday party, I kept thinking of how the same people are present to celebrate the passing of each phase with us, from my friends and family whose birthdays we've celebrated together and we are now celebrating the next generation and of the new friends we've made through her life in school and activities. We are on the journey together. We share in each other's blessings and tears. Life is a continuous cycle of love whether through the physical experience or on the other side of life.

Treasure your life and each person in it as the most precious gems.

Related Mommas Pearls Post: Keep yourself alive in the present PRESENT SENSE.

About Macha Einbender
Macha is an integral member of the Mommas Pearls family, practical spiritual and meditation teacher, radio show hostess, mother of 2 lovies, and one of my spiritual sisters. Visit MACHA at SPIRIT JUNKIE DAILY on Gabrielle Bernstein's HERFUTURE

Reprinted and re-purposed for Mommas Pearls with loving permission from Macha, Her Future.

An Invitation from Mommas Pearls:
Develop a greater appreciation for your life's journey on the next Mommas Pearls i-5 Live Tele-call series!!

Loving Pearls - Silent Power

2012-02-01T12:11:00.000-05:00

Gems

Love Pearl
“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” ~ Ram Dass

Lovely Affirmation
I am aware
I am open to receive Divine guidance
I listen with my heart
I invite guidance to lead me in my day today and everyday.

Macha's Love Note
There is something about getting quiet that makes you more aware of everything. We are surrounded by noise and stimulus everyday and it seems that our senses are taking a beating. Once I learned how to quiet my mind I started to hear things that I needed to hear. Ideas started to flow to me. Inspiration out of nowhere would pop into my mind. I know as the Course says “A still mind will receive” So I make it a point to get still. It was a little freaky at first what I started to “hear” I could sense what people were feeling. My intuition sharpened and I got insight on the future. Now I’m hooked. A few times a day breathing deeply and going within. Short intervals of silence. Not talking and really listening to the people around me. Driving with no radio. All these things can help you to access your inner ear.

Mommas Pearls PS Note
There's a true beauty in the power of silence. If you've ever lost your voice, whether physically with laryngitis or spiritually with feeling powerless to express yourself, there's a quiet power that begins to brew within. That source of power cues our other senses into action. We are addicted to talk and it's our primal form of communication that is always developing. When you are forced to shut up, you begin to source alternative nonverbal methods of communication and shifts you into being an active observer. In silence the world screams and your inner world is ignited. Tune into your emotional and spiritual body to see where else you've lost your voice.

Related Mommas Pearls Post: Enjoy your SILENT TREATMENT.

About Macha Einbender
Macha is an integral member of the Mommas Pearls family, practical spiritual and meditation teacher, radio show hostess, mother of 2 lovies, and one of my spiritual sisters.
Visit MACHA at SPIRIT JUNKIE DAILY on Gabrielle Bernstein's HERFUTURE

Reprinted and re-purposed for Mommas Pearls with loving permission from Macha, Her Future.

An Invitation from Mommas Pearls:
Take a journey of self-love and re-claim your true voice on the next Mommas Pearls i-5 Live Tele-call series!!

Loving Pearls

2012-01-31T10:52:00.001-05:00

Loose Pearls

Enjoy these Loving Pearls from an integral part of the Mommas Pearls family, practical spiritual and meditation teacher, radio show hostess, mother of 2 lovies, and one of my spiritual sisters, Macha Einbender.

Love Pearl
“Everyone has ocean's to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?” ~ Amelia Earhart

Lovely Affirmation
I live life to the fullest.
I have the trust and faith to SAY YES TO LIFE

Macha's Love Note:
Live your life. Create, be love, trust evolve. Be fearless and Free. Know your worth. Love others. See the beauty in life. Call on your angels. Trust your intuition. Listen to what your dreams are telling you. Pay apt attention to yourself. Enjoy and follow your joy wherever it takes you.

Mommas Pearls PS Note:
You hold an infinite capacity for love. Remove the barriers and boundaries that block you from truly experiencing unconditional love.

Visit MACHA at SPIRIT JUNKIE on Gabrielle Bernstein's HERFUTURE at:

Reprinted with loving permission from Macha, Her Future.

An Invitation from Mommas Pearls:
Take a journey of self-love and together we'll remove the barriers that prevent you from truly soaring, on the next Mommas Pearls i-5 Live Tele-call series!!

Stage Fright: How My Moms Stage Fright Inspired Me

2012-01-24T16:19:00.006-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Theatre Stage

Pearl of the Day: Pull Back the Curtain

On the journey of exploring generational wisdom and self-love, key memories are coming forward as I unlock my fear and realize the pearl "my fear lies within."

While speaking with my fellow mom friends about our daughters upcoming dance recital I recalled the many times I took the stage. I also remembered something about my mom.

When I was younger, my mom took a dance class and was very into it. I always admired my parents for maintaining and pursuing their independent interests. They took ballroom dancing lessons together, but this class was just for my mom to get her groove on.

The weeks leading towards her big dance recital were a time of great angst and anticipation.

With my almost 4 year old daughter, her eyes light up at the slightest prospect of being in a dance show. She whirls and twirls all around the house and is just pissed she has to wait until May. It's a big wide open chance for her to be with her adorable little ballerina girlfriends performing what she’s been learning all year long in a 4 walled, audience absent room where her mommy catches glimpses through a very small window. My guess is she’ll rock that dance show and my fellow mommas and I will be laughing, crying and beaming the whole time.

My mom’s eyes had quite a different glint to them when she’d talk about her upcoming dance show. That glint was filled with fear – a deer frozen in headlights, how am I going to do this, what did I sign up for - fear. She gets massive stage and camera fright. She loathes it and I saw her wrestle with that fear all my life.

Her fear of being upon the stage and showcasing what she’s learned throughout her dance class obviously stems from her life experience but it triggered an underlying fear in me. I feared wanting to shine, in all aspects of my life, and not fully enjoying the process of sharing my gifts and fearing the reaction of an unknown audience.

What exactly is waiting when the curtains are drawn? What will be seen?

Instead, I had mastered what we’ll call “Sharing Turrets” where I’d bombard and dump all my goods on the table and run, rather than share in an organic natural manner.

My mom crafted a game plan for her recital, she’d just smile and do it. And that’s exactly what she did. Her smile was frozen onto her otherwise petrified counting down the seconds until she’s off that stage face. She went through the motions, hitting every move. After all, she is a master perfectionist student first, scaredy cat second.

We, her real audience in that room of 100, cheered the loudest. We were all so proud of her and impressed she did it. She got on that stage and made it through!! Bravo Momasita, bravo.

I see throughout my life where I’ve been too fearful to just pull the trigger. To just go for it. To put my brave face on and just get up on that stage and do the funky chicken. To stop worrying about the applause, heckles or stone cold silence I may or may not receive and just do what I love, be who I am, do my work and share my gifts in the best and the most graceful way possible for me.

Gabrielle Bernstein recently gave me a nice kick in the ass to take the stage, as I relayed my fears about taking my journey with the Mommas Pearls blog and radio show to the next level and start group coaching. I'm onto my second group Tele-call series and am facilitating workshops.

On the upcoming Mommas Pearls Tele-call series we are taking a journey of self-love and through that journey we’ll pull back the curtain and cast a spotlight upon what triggers our fears, insecurities and doubts which may have stopped, stalled or delayed us. We'll strip it naked, like they say to do to overcome stage fright, and let the love shine through.

The love we hold for ourselves even in our most fearsome and overwhelming moments is the barometer for which our love for others is measured and how our children will gauge their own self love.

May your grand gusto performance be worthy of an encore.

Learn more about the Mommas Pearls Tele-Call Series by clicking through...

Join us for a FREE PREVIEW CALL on Monday, January 30th @8pmEST
CALL IN INFORMATION:
Conference Dial-in Number: (605) 475-4000
Participant Access Code: 1001670#

The Man Of Steel - My Grandpa

2011-11-12T11:09:00.000-05:00


At his 90th birthday dinner.

As our Mommas Pearls theme this week is tapping into our inner superhero, I am honored to share with you the memories of a man who was a true life superhero. My grandfather, Morris, who held the superpowers of endurance, love, faith, wit, humor and the sheer will to live.

98 years ago on 11-12-13, my grandfather, was born. He passed in 2009 and today would have been his 98th birthday. In many ways he still is here. He lives on through his family. His memory burns bright in our hearts and minds.

His wits kept him alive through the most horrid conditions in surviving the Holocaust. His faith was his coat of arms and being Jewish was a badge of honor. His endurance kept him running marathons well into his 80's and his creed was if you took care of your body it will take care of you. His love of his family was his greatest and most prized possession. And he was one of the funniest mo fo's around! With our without his vodka shnopps he'd have us all rolling with his jokes and his stories. I adored him and my grandma, his Hannela. They were the cutest people ever to have graced this plane.

In honoring my grandfather on the 3rd anniversary of his passing and in remembering my ancestors, for he was the last of the Mohicans of my grandparents to pass (endurance!), I'm honored to share my eulogy from his funeral service filled with his pearls of wisdom and the mantras for life of one of the world's best superheros.


My grandpa, Chief Morris in costume at my sister & I's major Halloween Birthday Bash, replete with his tom tom tuppleware drum!

I am honored to stand here before you as the first grandchild of Morris Gerkowitz on behalf of all his grandchildren.

My grandfather was the man of steel. He had a slender frame but endured so much in his lifetime. He is the consummate model of survival, endurance and independence.

While he lived such a long and storied life he was the simplest person. He loved his family, his Jewish heritage, his sports and lived his life with Honor, Integrity and a Jewish Heart.

He stayed active all his life and kept tabs on my health and fitness routine. He ran marathons well into his 80's and there was the mini-hall of fame in Grandpa’s backroom covered with newspaper clippings, trophies and medals from his various marathons and gymnastic achievements. He was so proud to show them off and each time you went back there it was like the first time you saw them. It was just so awesome to hear this champion remember his winnings, time in the circus as a gymnast and his races.

He had a wicked sense of humor and loved telling jokes. Our whole family loves to take turns in the spot light. When he turned 92, I started to joke with him that he was finally starting to act his age. Before then, my grandparents would joke about other old people and never considered themselves elderly. They were both so proud to be independent and remained so up until the end. His laugh was as infectious as his sense of humor and I will remember it always.

He cared little for material things or earthly possessions and lived by the notion that "you eat to live and not live to eat." Something which runs counter to my personal feelings but which I admired in him as yet another showcase of his discipline.

The value he placed in being Jewish was priceless. He loved his heritage and closely followed all the achievements of the Jewish people. He saved newspaper clippings with prominent Jewish and world events and wholeheartedly believed that the world’s greatest thinkers and inventors were all Jewish. We are a remarkable race. He was kind of like the dad in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", but for Jews.

His affinity for being Jewish perplexed me as he'd recount memories of being a young man who was frequently beat up and ganged up on for being Jewish in anti-semetic Poland and because of his religion he lost his life in Poland and underwent long hellish years during the Holocaust. Yet, his religious faith and his love for my grandmother, his soul mate, whom he married 3 times, pulled him through.

I love the story of how when they were surviving in Russia, he got separated from my grandmother and forced to be a medic in the field for the army and figured out he would charge for services until he saved enough to bribe the authorities to let him go, and he went in search of my grandmother.

He clung to his heritage as his way of perpetuating it and ingraining it in his family. The holidays were a blast with him especially Passover when he would adlib the Sedar stories with the real story behind the story which he’d wrap up each quatrain with “okay, that’s it.”

He was definitely an orator and loved engaging in philosophical conversations and had a wonderful intriguing perspective on world events. He read the papers every day, had a sharp mental acuity and was proud to have been a contributor to the Jewish Forward.

I always looked forward to hearing his speeches at the family events. He carefully crafted the speeches and actually saved all the speeches he made for his family’s memorable occasions. A great archive now for us to have.


Holding a photo of his soon to be 1st great-	grandchild

He was enormously proud of his family, his grandchildren and his growing line of great-grandchildren. We represented the future which he never thought he'd see.

My grandparents would crack me up with tales of the younger years with his 3 daughters and you can see his pride when he spoke of them and their mischief. He loved my dad, like a son and dad, he was so grateful for you being there this past year. He completely adored all his grandchildren, and couldn’t be prouder. He thought my sister and I did well with our selection of men.


with my daughter at my grandma's shiva

He certainly gave credence to the “great” in being a great-grandparent to my children and loved that the torch in the relay race of his family is continuing onto another generation.

My grandfather loved it when I brought my kids over and would play the piano with them. That was the cutest thing ever to witness. He was teaching them the same tunes he taught me throughout my life, called himself Mozart and loved watching them dance. I look forward to them playing these tunes to my children as they grow up.

While he loved us all dearly there was no one who stood before my grandma and his beloved wife, Hannah. They had googly eyes for eachother for as long as I knew them and were such flirts. The longevity of their love and adulation of eachother is admirable. They lived one of the greatest love stories of all time.

We all knew that when one passed the other would be soon to follow as this was the tie that bonded them and kept them alive throughout all their years. So off into the light they go to be re-connected with the family and loved ones they left behind so many years ago and who they firmly believed always watched over and protected our family.

He was the last of my grandparents to pass. A great chapter in my family has concluded. It’s very strange to think of all my grandparents in the past tense, especially my mom’s parents. They were always there throughout my life. It was my little grandma and my grandpa who loved his vodka schnapps.

He promised to look over us and we talked about what his symbol would be to me so I would know he’s around I said, all you need to do is laugh. He laughed and then thought seriously and said, "whenever you are outside and its about to rain I will keep it from raining until you are safe inside." This from a man who all his life has danced between the raindrops.

He was a fighter to the very end and one of my last talks with him I asked what he’d want everyone to know and it was simple, “I love my family, each one equally, and that’s it.”

Back at ya grandpa, I love you.

Happy birthday. :)

Out of Hands

2011-10-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

Pearl of the Day: Life, liberty and the pursuit of sanity!

Our founding fathers long ago endorsed the notion that in order to birth your own life you must first declare your independence. My cousin Lynn proffers the pearl that Mommyhood is trying to stay sane while balancing spinning plates on top of sticks held from both hands and feet.

There is nothing more freeing and restraining than being a mom and having your own family. Like John Hancock, moms set the ground rules for their house. Yet with this independence the mom’s attention is constantly in demand. There seems to be an unlimited supply of outward attention mom’s dole out on a regular basis.

Each facet of a mom’s life, Marriage, Kids, School, Friends, Activities, Work, Parents, House, Doctors, Shopping…. represents a plate in the cupboard and the mom’s are the lucky ones with the job to keep the plates spinning on top of sticks from your hands and feet. When one starts to wobble you need to put your attention there to get it spinning again until another one begins to wobble and you shift your attention there.

Sometimes, you need to let a plate fall and begin spinning another one but our attachment to the plate that already broke, ya know because you got that one from your mother and now it’s a big mess on the floor and the kids are charging in with bear feet, may cause us to miss the other plate that’s about to go.

I bet every mom feels like this. You crave your independence and need to check your mirror to make sure you are okay. Except sneaking a peak while in the midst of juggling the plates, well, there ain’t nothing graceful about that picture!

Think back to when you were engaged and first going to pick out your registry. You may have asked your mom for some guidance as to what items you needed to stock your new home with and your dishes pretty much set the stage for the rest of your items. You needed to decide how many settings you would need which was based upon how much entertaining you were planning to do and who you were going to do it for. This assessment usually begins with counting how many people in your family that you expected to invite to your table. Then you needed to add 2 plates for reserves.

So in many ways you chose exactly which pattern suited you best and to stock your cabinet with. Interestingly enough the dishes my then fiancé and I selected were later discontinued, when we heard this news we scoured the globe to stock up on our pattern.

Bet what you didn’t know back then when you signed on for Mommyhood is that you unconsciously decided to stock extra break proof plates for the kids and their friends, travel plates plus fine china!!

By setting your own home, stocking your kitchen with your dishes and inviting people over you are indeed declaring your independence. Many men take pride in this and perch themselves at the head of the table as the king of their castle. Personally I like the queen’s seat.

Before you ask a mom how they’re doing first conjure up the image of twirling plates and realize they may be in the midst of a Cirque du Soleil performance. Then be ready to dive in and help them twirl their plates or take one off their hands or just walk away or give them a push so they drop those old chipped hand me down plates and take them shopping for new ones.

Much like our country which is still in its infancy trying to find its role in the world, moms are the givers of freedom or pain, the police, goodwill ambassadors, social secretaries, consummate chefs and when we find a quiet moment, independent.

Yet when seeing our cupboard full, we take great pride and are all to happy to take them out for a spin.

For a refresher on the Declaration of Independence please visit:

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

For some cute snack plates check out:

http://www.twolia.com/shop/products/hand-painted-ceramic-lunch-or-snack-plates

For books on attachment issues my mom recommends: Susan Johnson “Hold Me Tight”

Powerless Power

2011-09-06T01:26:00.001-04:00

Candle In The Dark

Pearl of the Day: Enlightened Darkness, The New Natural

Deepak Chopra has said this pearl of wisdom " In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty . . . in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning."

When we are forced to detach from our comfort zone an amazing shift occurs. Once you are rendered powerless and the compass that directed your world is in a tailspin, you have no choice but to detach and go inward into the core of your being and detach.

Know it or not, your core spirit is always centered and ready to weather whatever storm comes your way.

The recent string of natural disasters coupled with the global economic crisis is enough to unseat any fixed being or thing, Washington Monument included, tossed on top of your already hectic life and personal dramas and you are dealing with a category 5 hurricane that wipes out your previous sense of normalcy and leaves you floundering amidst a blackout.

Instinctually, you want your life back to normal ASAP and many initial reactions are to seek shelter and power at friend’s houses or businesses so you can quickly and seamlessly re-plug into the wired world.

Others, like myself, sat powerless.

The basic gift of light, ice (especially for accident prone children floundering in the dark!), a hot shower, air conditioning, became the new “It” treasured commodities in an otherwise entitled society. Who has power or a generator and who doesn’t, became the new talk on the streets, and money proved powerless to get your power restored any faster.

We are so far removed from any form of lifestyle where we can't walk into a store and have aisles of food lined up before us, yet we see how fragile our modern existence is and how we can be transported back to a primitive way of living in an instant.

Each passing powerless day pulled me further out from the wired media matrix world and questioning how quickly I wanted to resume my last wired session.

How comfortable are you sitting at home in the dark?
Do your shadows come darting out?
Or are you at peace with your inner light turned on enjoying the lulling sounds of silence and humming of your neighbor's generator?

It’s not easy to let it all go and surrender to the powerlessness, welcome the darkness and accept that your modern conveniences - lights, air conditioning, hot water, perishable food, television and electronics- are on a much needed respite and assume a new much quieter albeit a little stinkier version of your former self. Especially for any extended span of time.

When the sun sets and your space is lit with candles, the hue of an otherwise white bulb bright room magically softens and the shadows of the flames light up your families faces.

Children are so adaptable. You wonder if your kids can easily unplug or are they desperately seeking a fresh supply of batteries to sustain their wired portable device electric ways?

As the eye of the hurricane fixates upon you, your relationship with your family is front and center. Their safety, welfare, sanity and the need to constantly entertain each other fades to black as you find yourself sitting around the candle lit living room just being and lounging.

Your no longer passing time but keeping with time.

It presents a unique opportunity to play catch up with each other and with your pets who’d otherwise take a side seat to your lap top. Telling stories over your flashlight microphone and being keenly aware of the sound waves that are filled by your voices and the laughter of your children versus the hissing of powerful wind gusts against your window.

Your home which is your safest place on earth suddenly feeling vulnerable and at risk to being whisked away to Oz. What you valued as your prize possessions a week before the blackout now seem immaterial and worthless as a new measurement - survival - underscores the new currency.

Hmmm, Luis Vuiton or a loaf of bread? Gucci bag or clean water?

Tragedy often evokes spiritual awakenings yet freedom reigns knowing that well after the storm surge, our spirits are our new impenetrable fallout shelter.

My grandparents used to say, “anything and everything can vanish in a second” or to some, in a New York minute, "so treasure love above all else."

When the lights come back and your eyes re-adjust, your interior once again looks and feels unfamiliar as your compass has shifted a degree from the storm.

Melissa's husband suggested that there should be monthly mandatory blackouts, a self imposed day off from the modern world (sans the loss of power to your fridge and preferably not on the coldest or hottest day of the year), are you game?

Hear more: WORD FROM OUR MOMMA AUDIO on Gabrielle Bernstein's website www.Herfuture.com

A Wing and a Prayer

2011-07-15T11:31:00.002-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Fingers Crossed, Eyes Open

Free Bird

Many in life live with this pearl as their mantra “expect the worst, hope for the best.”

We send our children out into this world on a wing and a prayer. We pray for them to dance between the raindrops and out of harms way.

Yet we know that independence is something that our children earn, over time, in small stints which eventually accumulate into great strides. Knowing our kids are confident, self assured and able to navigate their way is the ultimate parental goal.

When an event like the murder of an 8 year old Brooklyn boy, Leiby Kletsky, who so desperately wanted to walk the 8 blocks from his camp to his home and begged his parents to afford this small token of independence and freedom, that on his way home he asked the wrong person for directions, which led him in a most heinous way to the other side, happens, we second guess everything and everyone and our open hearts clamp closed.

It’s beyond a tragedy that strikes the core of a close knit community and places the reset button on many parent’s minds about children’s freedom and independence. When we thought we could breathe easy with our kids we now gasp for air.

What good is independence if you can’t follow it home?

Just this morning, my son asked if he could walk to the bus by himself. I just laughed at his intuitive timing. I then realized how every parent will receive the “I can do it on my own” request/demand at some point and in some form and at some point will cede to their request.

I remember wanting that freedom too, it was on the tip of my tongue and I could taste it. I walked home from school by myself at age 5, actually, I remember dashing home to see my new baby sister. What was only 5 blocks away, felt like miles. And at the time, there was a look out for white vans, which I'd run away from and still terrify me.

Now as an adult, I practically beg my parents to hold my hands. But I am glad they let go.

The four walls of the constructs of our homes expand out into our community and the circumference of what’s your child’s familiar space, widens. The further you go, the wider it is. Your block, your neighborhood, town, city, state.... We want our children to be comfortable and most importantly, safe, no matter where in the world they are.

Our neighborhoods are our testing grounds for life.

What we send out and bring into our communities matter. When an event like this happens, we realize we are all each others children. We have a duty to look out for each others welfare, especially our neighbors. Without going full blown yenta, for safety reasons, we should be aware of who are neighbors are, what they are into, if they have a pool, if they keep weapons in the home, whose home during the day, who is up early morning, late evening, etc... but you'll never ever truly know.

After we’ve removed the training wheels, we have to trust fate.

There’s a scene in Ice Age 3: Age of the Dinosaurs (2009), where SID (a laffable animal) tries to save a bird from being a Momma T-Rex’s and her babies dinner. Sid grabs the bird from the offering table and goes to set him free, all while the bird is struggling in fear, Sid then drops him off a ledge into the precipice with a "go be free" and as the bird is plummeting he realizes it’s a flightless bird and 50 feet below another predator snatches him up.

Us humans are the greatest animal experiment. We are all predators with marked prey, whether money, food, achievement, enlightenment, love, status or a great summer sale. Our darker side preys upon bullying, abuse, kidnapping, drugs, alcohol, addictions or violence.

What holds us from evolving beyond these instincts and into utopia?

All tendencies are engrained in our human instincts and evolutionary experience. With the billions of people in this world forming the most eclectic trail mix ever, it’s hard to avoid the nuts and just get the golden raisins.

My grandparents were the ultimate survivors and when I’d say something positive like, “my son is so handsome and strong” they’d be so quick to say “kananahora, poi, poi, poi” and follow with “god willing.” With them there were never enough lucky charms to cloak the ones they loved.

While I adorn plenty of amulets, I want to hope for the best - in people, myself, my children, my neighbors - and expect better than the best, I want my children to exceed and raise the expectation bar even higher.

Fingers crossed. Eyes open.

RAW TALKING MOMMA

2011-06-30T19:32:00.005-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Love The Deepend

Our kids are our greatest joys, they can also be our biggest pains in the asses which is why Clark Gable/Rhet Butlers brilliantly uttered pearl from Gone with the Wind (1939) “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” is something many a parent want to say.

We may bite our tongues but our energy still needs to get released. Yes, it would be ideal to transmute it into love in every waking parenting moment but sometimes our kids give us such a run for our money that pushes our physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological to its limits.

Such is why Adam Mansbach’s book GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP comes as a welcome reprieve. When you’re at the breaking point, and you can feel it coming on, you can border on the utterly ridiculous. Sleep is just one miniscule area. I mean, if your child isn’t sleeping, neither are you. Sleep deprivation, as we all know, leads to some funky messed up behavior and poor health conditions. We simply don’t function right without sleep.

In our delirium anything is likely to spew from our mouths. Actions you may never have taken in your right mind, when you are sane and well rested, now become your last grasp of desperation.

I remember a former colleague of mine, who happens to be among the most stable, grounded, down to earth people I know, has multiple children, saying how she’d be up all night with her baby trying to get them to sleep, rocking them in her arms, humming to them and with each one, she was tempted to just walk over and toss them out the window.

Joking of course. Kind of. Sort of. Okay, not really.

There’s only so much one can take. With kids, even when it's bad it's good, but there's not enough oxygen available for the number of ommmmm needed to get you back to center, back to that loving space where your children are the most blessed miracles.

Way Out

Parents all face that breaking point, that place where it’s you or me kid and you’d better get on board or I am just dropping your ass and heading for the nearest exit sign.

Nothing personal kid, just a matter of self-preservation.

Many a nights my husband and I wish we had a cross bow shaped tranquilizer dart gun to aim straight at our children’s asses when it’s way passed our bed time but our kids are still so completely revved up with no signs of slowing down.

So Adam’s book comes as a much needed collective sigh of relief that you in your 3 o'clock in the morning madness are not alone, but are among millions of parents (yours included) who wish their child had an off button so you can re-charge your batteries.

When you've faced the end of your rope and your child won't stop whining, mistakes you for a tissue, or insists on being carried when your back is breaking, your most primal survival instinct kicks in.

You are not alone in the deep end, we've all been there, some of us just passed the deep water test.

But it is those desperate moments, where you begin to deconstruct every form and feeling of love you feel for your child, your role as their protector, and begin to challenge every fiber of your strung out being that makes you feel like the worst parent in the world.

Are there suddenly conditions on my love for my child?

Nope, you and they just need to go the fuck to sleep. ;)

LOVE CHILD

2011-06-22T23:56:00.001-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pear of the Day: Children are Love

Happy Family Happy Home

When it comes to love I think of Eden Ahbez’s pearl as echoed in Baz Lurhman’s film Moulin Rouge “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Children are love. Being a parent is love’s reward. Love is the only language children are fluent in and understand completely. Children are born into this world completely open and ready for love.

Somewhere down the line as we grow we move out of the heart space and into the head space. We forget about love. We then spend our adult life lost and searching for love.

To our children, our language becomes foreign and a space inside grows empty as they just want to be re-filled with love.

We simply forget. We search for it, we crave it.

Mother Teresa puts it perfectly with the pearl “the hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

Through love is our connection, our appreciation our gratitude. Our kids want so badly to feel this connection from their parents.

When you forget yourself, correct yourself and start simple.

Start by expanding your own willingness to understand and feel love. Notice something about your child that you may have brushed off before and give it attention. Affirm your children.

Expanding the conversation of love is this week's special guest on the Mommas Pearls radio show, Laura Duksta’s mission with her best selling children’s book “I Love You More”. That along with her second book “You are a Gift” are wonderful starting points to help guide you to expand your conversation and open up another layer to your familial relationship.

So love and be loved!!

Healing Home

2011-06-06T09:00:00.024-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the day: A Soft Divide

Home Is Where The Heart Is

When we look at our attachments they can take on a more emotional form and like Dorothy Gale’s famous pearl “there’s no place like home”.

There’s no place where we are so attached and so vulnerable. Or at least we start out that way when the umbilical chord attaches and sustains the unborn via its mother.

Even after the chord is cut, the end trails linger as our dependency takes root.

Our families shape the mold of who we are and how we feel. Lifetimes are spent trying to fit that mold. As Natalie Berthold says “children just want to be loyal, good and please their parents.”

The family we are born to (or placed with) is the first chord we string and who we draw upon for support.

Yet many pristine familial environments are polluted. No family system and dynamic is perfect. We all have our issues and challenges to meet. However, home holds the most power over us. Particularly emotionally. Every tear, grunt, sigh, laugh, moan, chill, fear is exponentially powerful when elicited on the home front.

So when something disrupts the family system it shakes us to our core. If someone backs out of their assigned role in the family unit, it leaves the rest to cope, pick up the slack and assume a role they aren’t used to their emotions are compounded.

Even minor incidences can penetrate the kids emotional field. If I even raise my voice an octave or give my daughter a sharp "NO!" she loses it. My son is also sensitive to any perceived attack.

Young children haven’t quite developed their filters to protect their emotional bodies. Older children may have become too porous from their younger years to no longer be able to discern, hold or recognize healthy boundaries.

Handling children with kids glove is unrealistic but being aware of your impact upon them can mean a world of difference. Permitting the space within the family unit is not just a healthy dynamic but a necessary function of each individual’s experience within the family unit.

So it would seem that detachment is a healthy phenomenon. Just remember not to run with your scissors as you begin to cut your chords.

Try a more gradual, layered approach and be gentle with yourself and remember this gem, healing is a process, not a band aid.

Re-visit SCAR TISSUE where we begun this string of pearls…

Watch the Mommas Pearls VLOG.

Tune into the Mommas Pearls Radio Show.

THE CHOP SHOP

2011-05-26T22:31:00.002-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Gaining Through Losing

Before

During Oprah’s farewell show, I wondered how could she give up what she loves the most and recalled the Buddhist pearl “the greatest generosity is non-attachment.”

We humans tend to cling and create crutches, whether a physical trait, friend, habit or a favorite sweater.

On the Mommas Pearls radio show, I often ask my guests to name their most beautiful feature. Depending on the day and how humid the weather, my answer for physical feature is my hair.

Prepping

Admittedly, my hair is a crutch. I’ve hid behind it for years and have an - if it doesn’t look and feel good I don’t feel/look good - relationship going with it. That and a “I’m too young for you to be so gray” thing going on.

Yet people lose their hair every day to cancer, disease and/or pregnancy. I’ve been growing my hair for the past year and thoroughly enjoyed my goddess locks stage. Now with spring, it’s time to lighten up and I cut 10+ inches off and donated it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Going, going

I’ve wanted to donate my hair for a long time but never really mustered the courage to do so.

So it kept growing and growing and growing, way past my longest ever college length. Got to the point where even I thought it was too long. I was keenly aware that it grew past the goddess locks stage and went straight to strung out hippie stage.

What was I so attached to? It’s just hair – right? Mattress stuffing. It grows back.

So I cut my chord.

GONE! 10+ inches

My hair signified a direct line of attachment to a core characteristic of how I perceived myself and weighted my self esteem. Oh vanity, you are a shallow biaaaatch. Now with my hair short (& I haven’t yet done it myself) and barely going into a pony tail, I am way out of my comfort zone.

AFTER

I clung to my hair like my grandfather clung to his one pair of glasses during the war. Ridiculous. Without it I can no longer hide. At least there's a way to share a piece of me that I love.

Hair today, gone tomorrow. Freedom comes in all forms, mine is short form.

Check out my sister article and review of a mom's night out sponsored by StyleMom and Iced Orchid on Mommas Pearls Specials.

Copyright © 2011 Cynthia Litman d/b/a Tigris Imprints. All Rights Reserved.

UNITY DIVIDED - Mommas Pearls

2011-05-13T17:57:00.002-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Yin Yang Effect

Yin Yang 1

In one long weekend our world united to experienced powerful polar events of love and fear and I was comforted happening upon Swami Vivekanada’s pearl, "All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything."

Early Friday morning, hundreds of millions of people, witnessed the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a shining beacon of LOVE.

Late Sunday evening, President Obama took to the airwaves to announce the death of the USA’s most wanted evil villain, Osama Bin Laden, the pinnacle of fear.

Yowza, what a weekend! In all this unity, there is a great divide. On an individual and group level. Two reactionary tales.

The Royal Wedding

The royal wedding rekindled the little girl’s fairytale with its opulent and regal display. A commoner transforms into a princess. A girl becomes a woman, the ultimate in feminine "princess" energy yet still echoing the patriarchy of giving away a woman to a man. Prince William opted not to receive a wedding ring. Yet, there I was, hooked into the grand ceremony, pouring my heart into this young couple.

The DVD

When we look at William, we see Princess Diana who was divinely tapped into the world’s heart. With her memory comes sorrow and remembrance of her lost life, just as she was stepping into her power. Her legacy lives on with her sons and you can feel her presence surrounding William and this love renewed in this young couple. The world is at their feet.

Kate becomes part of the royal family and I say good luck with that. I mean, check out who her in-laws and grandma are! How would you handle your grandma looking like an Easter yellow peep on your wedding day? But can you say anything, uh, not to a true Queen.

England, our mother country, which we fought to emancipate from but is our staunchest ally still has a royal family. In the US, our celebrities are our monarchs, and we hold lost ideals about monarchies. The societal and class aspect was very notable during the ceremonies attended by the upper echelon of royals and world leaders clad in their morning suits and adorned with their fascinators, to the Mad Hatter esteem, while the "people" in mass look on.

All the pomp and circumstance of this grand ceremony seems off in these economic times and the new royal couple acknowledged this. What we saw was supposedly a dialed down version out of respect for the economic times. Uh huh. And what a grand display it was which we'll examine every little flawless detail of this grandiose wedding forever more.

Yet it embodies LOVE and the space of our hearts.

The Villain

On the other side of the pendulum is Osama, the greatest criminal mastermind of our time, shot dead, what does he represent?

For the past decade, he was branded as the US poster child of fear and perhaps rightfully so. The events of September 11^th are branded upon all of our souls and was a major wake up call. We are not untouchable and the Geneva Convention conventional rules of warfare were officially off the table.

What Osama represented to the US has petrified millions for over a decade and his image a haunting reminder of how unsafe this world is. Much like Lord Voltomore even when he was seemingly dormant his shadow lurked in our minds. However, to others, he was a leader, a dark lord to light their path and carry out their ideals.

So when late Sunday evening, Obama declared him dead after a covert seals mission and said “Justice has been served” no doubt it stirred a mixed range of emotions. A cold swell.


It's on a mug!!

The photo released in the situation room during the operation is intense. The look on Obama’s face is fierce. Finally, he’s gone gangsta!

He who shall not be named's death symbolized a death within us, a fear lurking in the personal corners of our individual beings.

After a decade long manhunt we finally got him. Those celebrating shared in the strength that the US does not back down and we are rebuilding Ground Zero. A chapter is closed.

Should it matter whether we raided his compound in a sovereign territory in the middle of the night where he and his family were sleeping? I have nightmares like that. Yes, he had family too. A very large well bred family who watched their father figure be plastered as a wanted man, hunted and ultimately shot in the head and dumped at sea. Justifiable homicide? Deserving? Smart power?

Down with a villain or rising of a martyr?

These questions stir up our anger, our ire, our fear, and conflict with our humanitarian side of honoring a life. Is our penchant for love and fear really as interchangeable as an o”S”ama and a o”B”ama? Are we closing one chapter just to begin another?

As we step into the new energy of this earth, love and fear transmute into oneness.

The notion that they are one in the same seems inconceivable yet this energy is played out within our global family and flips to love then flops to fear. Our world currently supports both. We each others mirrors. Wonder if we can reconcile the energy within us that remains after you sense the world is not so starkly colored in black and white.

What an intense weekend it was for us to experience. Makes you wonder how this weekend will unfold...

CREATION SPACE - Mommas Pearls

2011-05-06T11:35:00.002-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Your New Zip Code

Stork in the Night

My mom and I were chatting and she said this beautiful pearl in honor of Mother’s Day: “giving birth is beyond anything else in this world. Whether you are a mother to your child or a child to your mother, it’s the original core of being.”

How does this miraculous journey happen?

Before my first pregnancy, I dreamt that a line of huge storks were flying high up above the clouds, soaring through the air in formation on their way to pick up my baby from the birthplace of souls. It never clicked before what supersized cardboard lawn storks had to do with babies until that dream.

In the animated Pixar Short Film “Partly Cloudy”, storks are assigned to their creation “cloud people” way up in the heavens. The cloud people create all the beautiful things in the universe, puppies, adorable babies with a gathering of the clouds and a poof of lightning. A bit below the light cloud people, there is a darker cloud person, Gus, who is responsible for creating the crocodiles, porcupines, rams and what you’d perhaps put on the naughty list.

Gus’s stork, named Peck, has it rougher than most storks. Instead of cuddly babies to carry, he’s flying while battling bites, flesh wounds, porcupine needles to carry Gus's creations out into the world.

Exhausted, Peck returns for his next pickup but freaks out when he sees his next package awaiting demarcation is a fully toothed shark. YIKES!! He changes course and flies up to the light Cloud Person, looking on, Gus, is noticeably upset and angry and looking at his shark, his baby. To his surprised delight, the stork returns fully armed with a helmut and shoulder pads.

We are all armed with exactly what we need to welcome the beautiful gifts which are our children, in whatever package they arrive.

During my first pregnancy, I felt like a big fat fluffy angel cloud. I was keenly aware of the energy vortex that cocooned my belly, which was always piping hot to the touch. It was a time of complete surrender and trust. I've never been so in tune with my body, yet so completely out of control with the process of creation which takes on a life of its own.

Receiving the stork and welcoming our children is among life’s greatest and most miraculous surprises.

When that stork comes and we give birth, we bring the children into our world and their new homes with a sense of wonder - How did this happen? Is it really happening? What will happen? Are you sure you had the right address?

Then we watch our babies morph into this world. The earth energy merges with our bodies by way of air, water, food, energy waves and is constantly evolving. As more toxins appear in our once natural world, we need more armor. Like Peck, the stork, we navigate our surroundings the best we can.

Is it really possible to remain pure spirits like we were on our stork ride?

Luckily, there are certain lifestyle choices we can adapt to make the creation space our permanent residence.

We will explore these choices with holistic lifestyle expert Latham Thomas, founder of Tender Shoots Wellness on this week’s Mommas Pearls radio show.

Mother May I? - M's Gems

2011-05-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

By: Melissa Goldberg

Oh yes indeed you may...

Which is why Mommas Pearls is re-posting this precious M's Gem to remind all the mommas who we come to celebrate this year again!!

Mother’s day is a National Holiday that dates back to 1914 when President Woodro Wilson made it official. A day to honor Mother’s all over the country. Anna Jarvis, the “Mother” of Mother’s Day had a vision to increase respect for parents and strengthen family bonds. The tradition of handing out carnations was started because her mother’s favorite flower was a carnation. What is an interesting fact, is that many years after the holiday was instituted, Anna was quite upset about the level of commercialism it had become and spent her inheritance in trying to ban the holiday (Thank you Wikipedia for your fact finding).

Gail, Cynthia’s mom told us on the Mommas Pearls Radio Show, “to be present and to be in the moment when celebrating with your mother”. In honor of Anna and our Mother’s, here are some ways to honor and celebrate Mothers everywhere.

Some of M’s Gems...
• Words - The power of words is astounding. Forget the card store, write a note, draw a picture, no need to rhyme or to stay in the lines...

• Enjoy Her Passion - Some mothers’ like crafts, they like sports, they love books or games. This weekend do something she loves to do, you may even learn something new. If your mom loves her garden, then forget the florist and head to the local nursery and pick up some plants, gloves and tools.

• Talk is Cheap - No, Really, talk is cheap! There is nothing like a long walk in the park or sitting on a chair on the porch where you can find some great conversation. Talk is cheap but the conversation can be rich!

• Take a Picture With Your Mom - How many times do we give a framed picture of our kids to our mother’s, no no no, On this day, we honor them. Go about this the way you wish. You can go over the top and set up a formal photo shoot at a studio or you can have a friend with a nice camera come over and click away or even better have your kids sketch a portrait.

• Feed Her Soul- When in doubt...eat! They say, the way to a man’s heart is through his belly, well this works for women too. Remember to dine on Mom’s favorites.

• Share an Experience - No, this doesn’t mean you need to take mom skydiving, but do something that allows you both to do something different. This adds to the memories and the stories that you can share and talk about for years. Ideas? Well, perhaps a dance lesson, a cooking class or you can take a road trip and drive to a book store out of town to attend a book signing...whatever mom wants.

• Interview your Mother/Research your Mother - The basis behind Mommas Pearls is telling our stories and writing them down. Get her voice on tape, ask her as many questions as you can. You may be surprised by some of the answers. Even though you know your mother your whole life, there is still a lot you don’t know.

• BE Honored / BE Celebrated - If you are a mom, don’t forget to allow your loved ones to pamper you, to celebrate you and to honor you – you’ve waited all year for one day, enjoy it!

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Note: Originally published May 2010)

LIVE LIFE NOW! - Mommas Pearls

2011-04-14T21:04:00.000-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Ride Away

I was listening to Kris Allen sing the song (originally written by the Irish band The Script) whose title is an amazing pearl, “Live like You’re Dying” (watch the video) and was struck.

Every moment we live brings us closer to our death. Yet we often don’t live it up in the precious moments we have. There are a million reasons for not being fully committed to the present as life’s “distractions” are just another part of living.

Every so often you need to stop for a moment and ponder Sophie Chiche’s, CEO & Founder of Life By Me, favorite question - What is meaningful to you?

Such was the question - well actually, the question that you ultimately ask after thinking if you knew you only had 1 month to live, how would you spend it? - that my friends had a ball tossing around possible scenarios.

Would you be gentle on your body and be in lotus pose praying in a sacred place? Or, go out like a bad ass looting, plundering and pillaging? Or, go all glutton sin style and chow down burgers, fries & chocolate peanut butter milkshakes until you bust a gut? Or, pack it up and head for hills? Or, travel to all those pegs on your map you’ve yet to visit? Or, would the last remnant of you be a cartoon outline on the door as you rush towards your fate in a mad sheer doomsday panic?

We all have a lot of life to live.

Seeking answers to what means most to you can be paralyzing if not painstaking. The lyrics in my new favorite song also ask - “So if you’re life flashed before you, what would you wish you would have done?”

If knowing the end is near changes your equation in how you live your life then perhaps a shift is in order. Perhaps this overarching reality brings us closer to our authentic selves and wanting to further live life with purpose.

So what are your reasons for living?

If you are waiting for an invitation, consider yourself cordially invited to fill every moment of your life with meaning.

Chew on that while I go grab some chocolate. ;)

Tea For Two - Mommas Pearls

2011-04-08T10:15:00.001-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Sip of Life


Audra Moran, Me, my Girl & Kelly Ripa

With time flying the way it does I’m thinking of the pearl “Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count.” (anonymous)

Such is my mantra for the time spent with my children – most of the time. In the midst of our busy schedules carving special time away with your children becomes priceless quests. If Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet can vow to “make it count” in the mega-film Titanic (1997) when we know that ship is going down, we can bring it home to every day.

We received an invitation via Skimbaco Lifestyle to attend a Tea Party at the Eloise Shop at New York City’s infamous Plaza Hotel hosted by Kelly Ripa and sponsored by Electrolux. The mother-daughter event kicked off a special effort in support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) initiative to help find a cure.

What an invitation. Warrants a dress. Ugh. While I dislike wearing dresses, for my daughter, I will enter her princess world in style. Admittedly, I was and in many ways still am a tomboy but the sweetness of a tea party and dressing up my daughter brought tears to my eyes. Particularly when she gasped and said, "mommy, you look beautiful." Before I had a daughter I envisioned days like this.

It was a beautiful New York morning when we approached the Plaza and my daughter and I marveled at how beautiful the building is and we reminisced about the days we shared in Central Park. With her in my arms we entered.

My daughter was treated like royalty at the Eloise Shop and I was on a mommy high. Until Kelly Ripa shared how she lost a close friend to Ovarian Cancer and supports the OCRF so hopefully “our daughter’s will never know the words Ovarian Cancer.”


Tea Service

This popped my little fairytale bubble I had going on in my mind and brought me back to all the more importance of spending days like this with my children. You just never know what is waiting out there for them or you.

With all the things you have to worry about as a parent and that our children have to brave in this world, the shimmer of hope that Ovarian Cancer, which can rob a woman of her gifts of womanhood, or any cancer for that matter, which shatters the dreams of families like teacups, can be obsolete in her lifetime would be an unbelievable sigh of relief and take one thing off the roulette table!

Until that time, be sure to savor those precious moments and honor your reservations for tea while your table is full.

Full Disclosure: "My participation in the ‘Chari-Tea Party’ Campaign was sponsored by Electrolux who provided me with transportation arrangements to and from New York City to participate."

For more details about the day, please read the full Mommas Pearls review.

Divinely Intertwined - Mommas Pearls

2011-04-01T00:59:00.002-04:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Trash Talk

Holy Trash!

On my morning walk, I noticed garbage, lots of garbage, and then I came across Imelda Marcos’s pearl, “People say I’m extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty, but tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?"

Some mornings, I notice the light, other times the green stems cropping up from the ground and flowers bursting into the air, but on this particular morning, there laid the empty coffee cup, rows of trash bags, a really screwed up lawn chair decades past its prime on the sidewalk and a soda can. My block is usually quite pristine so what gives?

As I walked over to help an elder neighbor bring her trash to the curb, I was struck at how we are always taking out the trash. Really, it just never ends, we take in stuff, unwrap it, consume it and toss it. It’s a daily ritual we practice well into our old age.

Taking out the trash is a necessity in as much the same way as our need to cleanse ourselves. Spiritual healer, Pauline Esposito puts it this way, “as we evolve, we reach certain plateaus and then work to clear out so we can shift up a level and work from the vibration of the new level until we plateau and need to shift again.”

Before we reach the plateau usually an event keys off whether we are truly ready to make the next leap and we need to clear house to make way. Perhaps you’ve stayed in one place to long and your trash has piled up.

When something has passed its expiration date, do you eat it? Admittedly, I’ve gambled a bit here and there even when the item is saying in black and white that it’s time to toss it.

Clearing our fields is an opportunity to honor where you are while releasing who you no longer are, which may be bound with resentments and wounds that you’ve carried for lifetimes. When you unload, you begin to breathe deeper, walk a bit stronger and leave your trash on the curb.

Meditation is a way for you to listen, scan and cleanse your body, energy field and mind. When you begin, you may spot the trash resting within, usually because you can’t move passed it, like, if you set your garbage pail in the middle of the driveway, it blocks your car from leaving. You need to move it over so you can pass or another rather unfortunate option, just run it over.

When recognize the block, learn from it then pack it up, and release it back to spirit or as my dear friend Macha says from A Course In Miracles, “return it to love.” When you clear out and open up Pauline says, “creation becomes easy and everything will fall into place.”

Parts of us are recycled everyday, our thoughts, blood, excrement and one day our bodies will be recycled to the earth and our spirit to source. When any part of our being backs up, our physical, spiritual and emotional bodies will usually set off cues we’re in trouble. Those cues, like litter, are asking to be noticed and picked up and dropped in the proper receptacle.

Once you clear out and dump Oscar The Grouch, then spirit will step in and help tidy up.

For all you April Fools, that's a truly sacred spring cleaning!

SING SONG

2011-03-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: A New Soundtrack

My lil Rock Star

Spring is near and hearing the birds chirp again is music to my ears and has me thinking of Eric Olson’s pearl “Music is what life sounds like.”

Indeed the rush of life often sounds like a big crescendo yet there is a subtle chord that we each hold. Our lives ebb and flow to our own beats and we flow in and out of rhythm.

If your life was set to music what would it sound like?

Perhaps, like angelic sounds praising you in hallelujah; evil and eerie tunes like The wicked witch of the east, Psycho or Jaws, alarming you towards danger; the charging sounds of horses; the heroes “here I come to save the day” song; the beautiful sounds of surprise - tah-dah; an operatic melodrama; the sounds of the ocean’s deep mysteries; or maybe the twinkling sounds of magic and discovery.

My soundtrack likes to shuffle and sometimes go into Auto tune mode. Other times it’s shut off altogether. While the singing beauty gene completely dodged me and has been virtually outlawed, music in its solitary or group form, is priceless and always there when I need it most.

How many times have you turned on the radio only to hear exactly what you needed to in music. It stikes the sad chord and just as easily helps me put on a happy face. Michael Torke asks “Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?

Indeed, music is a wonderful therapy and the jukebox of my soul is filled with a variety of different beats. Music leads you down many paths – joy, sorrow, celebration and love. It accompanies you on road trips and can set you in a running zone. It's often sensual, powerful, raw, innocent and any one chord can invoke a waterfall of emotions.

The power of music is at our fingertips and you are the conductor.

The other day in the car, my kids began signing spontaneously, to the tune of Beyonce’s "Single Ladies” which we’ve edited to “all the stinky babies…. Get your hands up…. I’m off to the tub….” They realized the other was singing too and wanted get in tune but they kept missing eachother, they’d start, then stop…. It was hilarious. They then stopped and talked about what song they’d sing and It took them a few tries and counting off 1, 2, 3 until they got in harmony. I had two full fledged pop stars in my back seat, singing away, happy as can be.

Music appreciation is a deeply personal experience and I’m learning how to help their relationship with music evolve and deepen. My kids can really get down! We have regular dance parties and I love their impromptu Grammy Award worthy performances.

I love how their singing has developed from the cooing of their baby stage to the sing songy stage now my sons got this rock star thing happening and my girl is channeling her inner Bari Koral, who joins us this week on the Mommas Pearls radio show to help us further explore the importance of music in our children’s lives.

If your soundtrack sounds like a broken record, strike some new chords.

THE MAIN ATTRACTION

2011-02-02T08:45:00.000-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Week: Plug into Your Heart

"Roses in A Vase" - Renoir

With all the nostalgia that February brings, I keep hearing the pearl in Poison’s song “every rose has its thorn.”

The "law of attraction" is no secret and has been a universal spiritual law for centuries, so why does it seem that so many people are clueless as to its existence and power?

I often wonder if I actually asked for what I received with defeatist thoughts like – “I don’t remember signing up for this”, “I got more than I bargained for”, "I reaped what I sowed" and my good old standby “that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Then I recall one definition of "law" is "a statement of an order or relation of phenomena that so far as is known is invariable and unchangeable under the given conditions".

So what if everything that happened in your life, you 100% set up for yourself because of your beliefs, laws and affirmations?? You staged it, planned it, intended and manifested it? Even when you fail, you take the same path again. Yikes!! Someone get me a new stage director!!

I never could have imagined that I’d be exactly where I am this day. Yet, looking back, I see that I’m exactly where I let myself be. I laid my path brick by brick.

Overview the areas of your life and see the life lessons in them. Do you see the laws you've laid for yourself? The relationship you’ve attracted, even the crappy ones chock full of heartaches, are mirrors into your souls. Actually most of my greatest slaps in the face have been my most valuable lessons. Each smack has brought me closer to what's true to my heart.

My heart closes when I try to enact an unholy law.

Sweeping in with the February snowflakes is Cupid and as love fills the air, I conjure memories of my past loves.

This practice involves remembering not just past boyfriends and Valentines Days spent alone but other lost loves, like volleyball, playing violin, sleeping in... What was it I loved so much in my past that I left behind? What loves did I blindly follow? Did I turn away love? What else have I left frozen in time?

It's time for the thaw. Time to clear my heart for the love I have yet to know.

The key to unlocking my heart is trust. I’m learning to trust. To trust myself and be a conscious player in the universe’s grand master plan which trusts me completely to play my part. Trusting also that everything will turn up roses and learning not to prick myself on their thorns.

Better yet, I trust that by following my heart I will manifest roses without thorns.

In love.

Adventure Awaits!

2011-01-25T15:56:00.001-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the day: Legendary Memories

X Marks The Spot

As the cold rages on and cabin fever sets in Einstein’s pearl “Imagination is more than Knowledge” is prancing about in my mind.

When I was younger, I’d say younger than 5, I was at a sleepover with my cousin and in the wee hours of the morning we had a brilliant idea. We needed to go out and search for monsters. They were out there all right. We let ourselves out of the house (unbeknownst to my aunt) and headed for the forest (backyard).

The next part of the tale is told second hand from my aunt who awoke to no kids in her house, totally beyond panicked, and a few hours later, saw a police car coming with my young partner and crime and I bopping away in the backseat of the police car. She was very thankful my cousin knew her home address!

Did I learn my lesson? Was that the last time I went out in search of monsters? Not by a long shot. I was always seeking out adventures and dove in head first to whatever it was I did.

Yet, it was always more fun to have fellow adventurers, whom have varied over the years to create the stories of legends. Somehow this role of fellow explorers has morphed into my children who are finding compadres all on their own.

I look into the eyes of my innocent little children and try to see the world they way they do. My son is going to save the galaxy and my girl may just be fluttering with the fairies to paint the flowers and butterflies. Actually, she'd be the fairy queen, crown, wand and all.

Sometimes they just get that gleam in their eyes and my inner child is going “yeah, I like where you are going with this kid” but then the parental inner voice of mine goes "uh, oh" and begins to question whether to go with or squash the plan. Do I tear up the treasure map, lay his toy weapons to arms and say “there are no such thing as fairies”?

Usually my inner child wins out as it is so fun to let them take the lead, follow along and try to step into their imaginary play worlds. I am amazed at just how graphic and into it they get. They’ve got this whole universe going on which is a great break from our scheduled, matter of fact, “reality based” concrete lives.

Like Eric Delabarre’s pearl in his new book “Saltwater Taffy”, “every moment is an adventure waiting to happen.”

Carpe Diem!!

Mission is Possible

2011-01-18T15:49:00.002-05:00

By: Cynthia Litman

Pearl of the Day: Grace in Action

As making New Year’s resolutions seem like a distant memory, I’m brought back to the fray this Martin Luther King, Jr. day with his pearl, “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve... You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Many have such grandiose ideas of what it means to be of service. You don’t have to have a billion dollar foundation like Bill and Melinda Gates in order to make an impact.

I was walking my son to his bus on a snowy morning and on the walk back I saw our footprints side by side in the snow down my path, driveway and the street. It was so sweet, his, while growing, are still so small yet I realized that he is indeed following in my footsteps, I lead him through this life until he makes his own imprints as a man. During these early precious stages I am showing him the path and he is holding onto my hand fully trusting my lead.

What is he taking away with him when I leave him at the bus? Hopefully, a happy, loving and super delicious heart and a charitable spirit. Our children come into this world with such open loving spirits and I believe it is never too early to engage them in philanthropy. Philanthropy is a state of mind and you can serve someone in the simplest ways.

Sometimes a simple gesture, like a smile can make a world of difference to someone else. Reminds me a bit of the animated film "Ratatouille" – where Chef Gusteau’s motto is “Anyone Can Cook” in that "Anyone Can Serve". It is both that simple yet that complex.

Many people list giving more to charity and doing more volunteer work as a resolution. This is on my list as well to do on my own and with my children. However, sometimes it’s not so easy to know where to start to find a charity and a mission that appeals to us. If you want to write a check, millions of charities will happily accept, but what if you want to do more, give time, do something hands on.

On our Holiday Spirit show, Rabbi Z suggested finding a charity where the dollar you give is the dollar that is spent on the cause, as opposed to on overhead. When we spoke with Jamie Rapfogel of Birthday Wishes, we learned we could do more, we can bring our kids and get hands on and step into a needy family’s life and make a difference by throwing a birthday party.

This week we’ll be speaking with some philanthropic moms who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting who took their tweenage children on a UJA charity mission to the Gulf Coast Region to help with the restoration effort in the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Their dedication to leaving lasting imprints upon their children is so inspiring.

My great grandfather was a great philanthropist and used to open his synagogue on Friday nights to serve all in need a warm dinner. He used to walk the streets of Poland with pennies in his pocket to give to children on the street.

While we have a long way to go to reach his stature, just seeing my children help each other and others, even in the simplest ways of sharing toys or giving a bite of their food leaves an imprint upon me and hopefully they will carry that with them as they step through their path in this lifetime.

As their hands leave mine, may they walk forward with grace.

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