The Body's Heartfield
I'm quoting some snippets from an article from the Institute of Noetic Sciences' SHIFT Magazine, called The Body's Heart Field, by Rollin McCraty:

• The heart is now recognized as a highly complex system with its own functional "brain."
• The nervous system in the "heartbrain" enables it to learn, remember, and make functional decisions independent of the brain's cerebral cortex.
• The signals the heart continuously sends to the brain influence the function of higher brain centers involved in perception and emotional processing.
• Compared to the electromagnetic field produced by the brain, the electrical component of the heart's field is about 60 times greater in amplitude, and permeates every cell in the body.
• Information pertaining to a person's emotional state is communicated throughout the body via the heart's electromagnetic field.
• Negative emotions are associated with an erratic, disordered, incoherent pattern in the heart's rhythms.
• Sustained positive emotions appear to give rise to a distinct mode of functioning, termed psychophysiological coherence.
• One person's brain waves can actually synchronize to another person's heart.

The Philosophers' Walk
Here in Heidelberg there is a cozy feeling. There is the lively university and the old streets where Goethe, Wagner, Mozart, and other major intellectual lights walked and talked. Across the Neckar River is the famous Philosophers' Walk through gardens and woods that looks across at the mighty castle and brings inspiration and peace. The other night my friend and I ate at one of the oldest restaurants here, in a little cavelike room where Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Einstein, and so many others had feasted. There is an air of a living salon here, stimulation for the mind that wants to reflect on loftier themes. My friend is translating Rainer Maria Rilke's poems and elegies from the German into an updated English, intuitively capturing the deepest mystical truths he certainly intended. Here is one that keeps with the theme of what I've been feeling:

For Just a Moment, I Wish that Silence…
For just a moment, I wish that Silence could become totally quiet,
that all the possibilities and probabilities would cease to stir,
even the friendly laughter;
If the noise, that over-agitates my body’s senses,
went quiet, I would Awaken—

Then I could embrace you in a thousand different ways,
wrap myself around the edges of your soul,
become you (a simple smile would do);
then I’d release you back into the living Silence,
like a blessing.

Coming through the "Human Stuff"
I am in Heidelberg, Germany, and am having an interesting experience inside myself. I don't speak German and it's easy to feel that I don't fit in, that I am a stranger in a strange land, unacquainted with customs and the flow of life. I am stymied by understanding options when ordering food, or the way shopping at the market works, or what is considered rude and polite, or how to connect my computer to the internet. Perhaps this is a perfect place to begin to unhook from my personality, for I find myself quite often in the past week saying, "Penney just got upset and contracted about that." Or, "Penney wants to withdraw because she feels too overwhelmed right now." Not I, not Me. I am realizing I am an observer with no particular agenda. I come through the "human stuff" and sometimes get stuck in it.

I am a little interested in Penney, but not that much. I am not invested in having Penney continue telling the story of her life history, as though that makes her real. I don't care about her reasons and excuses for behaving certain ways. Actually, I'd like a lot of that to be gone because it feels like it's in the way. I am a space of joy and creativity within a bigger space of joy and creativity. Other people are spaces, too, and they can join me. Still, I am triggered into old reactions by some memory pattern just beneath my muscles. It can take awhile before I realize I think I'm Penney again and simply let go and move through old habits to the open space place again. It's sporadic, and I feel like I'm cruising a bit, not quite uunderstanding how this new "car" drives and what it can do.

What Is Africa's Destiny?
I spent 2 months in South Africa in 2005, and I knew at the time that the experience was so intense and complex, and happening on so many levels, that it would take a long time for me to digest it. Today I feel that it is still only partly integrated, and strangely, the place calls to me whenever I see articles about it, and deep-down, my cells are vibrating to the low, pleasing tone of that continent. I feel the place is pregnant with feminine energy. While I was there I did readings for many women in positions of influence and a large Intuition for Businesswomen workshop. I met so many amazing souls!

When I tune in on what role Africa is to play in the world's evolution, I sense it is the next most important place. It is waking up and remembering deep truths, like Ubuntu, which says "I am because we are," or "a person is a person because of other persons." This awakening of light makes the old unconsciousness, poverty, disease, crime, racism (including intra-tribal hatred), and oppression come sharply into focus. It really may be Africa that first realizes how to live according to the universal principles of the unified field, and it may set an example for the rest of the world. I often thought while I was there how Africa parallels the experiment taken on by the United States to discover a way for diverse peoples and religions to live together under one roof in harmony. We seem to have forgotten in many ways what our country is all about. Perhaps Africa needs to remind us.

As light builds inside ourselves and in the planet, it certainly points out atrocities and everything that is NOT in harmony with the universal laws of love. These things, so widespread and visible in Africa, cannot stay in existence anymore. Healing is afoot, yet the first phase is often a healing crisis, where things look like they get worse before they improve. I feel women are the leaders in this healing, that our wisdom is especially suited for creating new government based in unity awareness. That's why I was so happy to see Oprah's new school for girls, where women leaders can be trained. I encourage you to check out Africa Renewal magazine, and this article on women: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol20no2/202-african-women.html
Photo credit: Ky Chung