All communities have a ‘medium of exchange’,

‘a common currency’, a culture

that binds people together and tries to ensure that

they are engaged in the same enterprise.

A friend of mine tells the story of

an English priest , Fr. Aidan,

who was describing his experience as a

university chaplain.

He was studying the ‘currency’

of the university community

and spent time trying

to detect what it was.

And eventually the penny dropped.

He realized that when people met

their  ‘currency of exchange’ was

‘grievances or complaints’.

Their ‘ready currency’ was ‘grievances’ and

they had a vault full of the stuff.

Grievances then circulate round the body of the

community and spread like cancer cells to all parts

of the body!

Without some positive input into the circulation,

communities, individuals, become dry,

crusty and at worst die.

We can all contribute to establishing currency of

goodness and kindness which 

then circulates through the community giving life.

The most desirable currency is love.

This creates ‘life’, is the creative juice of a community.

What energy do you put into circulation, what currency do you use in your interactions is a question for each of us..

When the family returned from Sunday mass,

the Dad criticized the sermon, the

daughter thought the choir’s singing was terrible, and the Mum found the organist played too loud.

The younger son of the family piped up,

‘But it was a good show for 50cent don’t you think Dad?

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We can learn much from Buddhism

and other Eastern religions.

For  a while we in the West have been busy

developing science and technology,

the Yogis and Roshis in the East,

have been cultivating ‘inner technology’,

focusing on mindfulness and the art of being present.

Buddhism provides a methodology

to clean up and calm the mind helping

us to become more present.

Mindfulness is very much in

vogue at the moment – for example

all Google employees are being exposed

to mindfulness through a program known as

‘Search Inside Yourself’.

Paddy Power, the well known Bookmaker,

is about to introduce mindfulness to all its employees.

Our world has been reduced to a fast moving,

transient foreground. A world where we no longer

have the patience or presence to linger quietly

where the unknown awaits us.

Mindfulness is a way of life not a religion….

it is ‘wakeupism’ training us to pay attention

to be aware. By paying direct attention we get

an intimate knowledge of how things are.

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When I was young we occasionally shopped in Cork.

On one visit, a tracksuit caught my attention.

It was there in the window of a corner shop on Patrick’s street.

It was black, velvety and I wanted it.

I looked at it longingly and knew I had to have it.

The track suit quickly took on a magic quality.

If I could just get that track suit, this one thing,

then all would be well and I would be happy.

The tracksuit took on a life of its own and generated

feelings of deep longing in the pit of my stomach.

Eventually, I persuaded my mother to buy it.

Got it.  I felt the relief…..

and almost simultaneously,

the deep disappointment. This wasn’t it after all.

Now I had it, the track suit lost its magic spell….it gradually

became just what it was, a track suit, and I was left with

the still gaping hole of need.

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It does seem that we are entering a new era. What the defining characteristic of this era will be, has yet to emerge! So many things are changing. Some suggest we are entering the Age of Aquarius!

From their study of astrology, the Mayan’s developed a system of calendars. One of these calendars, ‘The Long Count Calendar’, shows December 21, 2012 as the end of a 5,125-year-long cycle.

Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies says that, “for the ancient Maya, it was a time of huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle.” We are approaching the end of one such cycle. The Mayans were not predicting a doomsday scenario but noting the end of a significant astrological cycle.

At the Winter Solstice in December 2012, the sun will be aligned with the centre of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that “whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the centre of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m.”

Whatever one believes about the Mayan’s and their calendars there seems no doubt that we are undergoing a very significant time of change.

Yesterday, the feast of the Epiphany, one of the prayers, prayed for this time of unusual grace for humanity.

A friend of mine sent me the following message: “I actually believe there is an Intelligence over-riding a lot of what we are doing and even our perception of time etc.  A plan is taking place in spite of us and we are having to keep pace.  My approach has been to do what looks like committing ‘hari kari’ – drop everything and start singing praise to God on the principle that ‘Praise stills the enemy’ (Ps 8) and ‘God inhabits the praises of His people’ (Ps 21).  That approach has certainly brought a lot of equanimity into my inner state during this turbulent time of change.

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BACK TO FITNESS!!! CLASSES IN MURROE COMMUNITY

HALL STEP DANCE AEROBICS

Mondays 7pm (starting on 9^th of January)7 classes – 49 euros or 8 euros pay as you go

FITNESS PILATES

Mondays 8pm (starting on 9^th of January) Only intermediate/advanced

CALLANETICS

Full body toningThursdays 7:30pm (starting on 5^th of January) 7 classes- 49 euros or 8 euros pay as you go

NEW!!!!TUMMY WORKOUT

Get a flat toned tummy only in 30 minutesThursdays 8:30pm (starting on 5^th of January)10 classes – 35 euros or 4.5 euros pay as you go.

For more information and to book your place, please, call Inga on 087 7866280

Places are limited!!!!

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Happy New Year and I hope all our hives will be healthy, strong and productive during 2012.
As we know, bees organize their lives around seasons of plenty and seasons of want!  We are in the season of want!

Inside the hive, it is quiet time as the bees are in a huddle, forming a foot ball size cluster. At the centre it can be as snug as 38c even though the outside temp maybe below freezing.

The colony is largely dormant, using its stores of honey sparingly so it can survive the times of want and be ready for the spring when all will be a bustle with building and breeding!

This year, as it has been so mild over Christmas the bees found plenty of opportunities to take cleansing flights. They will continue to do this on sunny days, even it is colder, but they must make sure to get back inside quickly in case the temperature drops.

If the winter is mild the queen may start laying a few eggs. The resulting larvae will have to be kept warm in the centre of the cluster.

It is important to keep checking roofs for damp and to heft hives to see that supplies are adequate. If for any reason they are low you can always feed them fondant. I still have not got any further with getting a scale hive but it is on the list for 2012. I might just ‘google’ Scale Hive now!

Since the bees require minimal attention at this time, it gives us a chance to get equipment ready for the coming year – clean old frames and have them ready to be waxed up in the spring.

WASP FACES!

I read an interesting article in the London Times of the 2^nd of Dec. It was the pictures of 9 different wasp faces that caught my attention. The accompanying study reported that wasps can recognize one another’s faces.

Though these paper wasps have brains a million times smaller then ours, they have evolved the ability to recognize each other’s faces and behave aggressive to wasps with unfamiliar faces. This presumably allows individual wasps to learn the identity and status of their nest mates.

The findings, first published in the journal of Science show that insects are able to recognize faces in detail.

The researchers put wasps in a T shaped maze with different pairs of pictures at the end of the arms. A reward was given when the wasps approached one of the images but not the other. The pictures included different paper wasp faces, geometric patterns, caterpillars and wasp faces altered by computer. The wasps learned to recognize the picture that would get them the reward more quickly when the images were displayed genuine wasp faces than with any other picture pairs. It seems that bees too recognize faces and do it in the same way we do.   Maybe they can recognize our faces too!!

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