Friday, August 14, 2009 by Planet Janet.

Many people in south Charlotte, NC, have been touched by the near drowning of Ian Shaver (see my original post about Ian here), and many thoughts and prayers have gone out to the Shaver family.  Now I’m happy to report some good news.

As of yesterday, Ian is off the ventilator and is doing remarkably well!  Folks, please keep that positive energy flowing.  Hopefully soon we’ll hear that Ian is getting ready to join his friends at school

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Saturday, August 8, 2009 by Planet Janet.

The following is an email I just received about 13-year-old Ian Shaver, who nearly drowned in Park Crossing’s pool in just 3.5 feet of water.  His condition is critical, and the family is asking for your help.  So for those of you who pray, pray.  For those of you who do not, send Ian all the positive energy you can muster, and let’s witness a miracle!

{Read email below}

Good afternoon friends & family,

I have an immediate prayer request on behalf of our friends, the Shaver
Family. Young Ian is fighting for his life right now in the Levine
Children’s Hospital Pediatric ICU. Our families are friends and Dan and I
also are involved with the Youth Sports as coaches in our community.
Yesterday at 10:45 am EST his oldest son Ian was playing a game with friends
in their neighborhood pool located in the Park Crossing Subdivision in
Charlotte, NC. It’s just like when we were kids, they were trying to see who
could hold their breath the longest underwater. Ian won the game but lost
much in the end. Ian was found unconscious in the Park Crossing Neighborhood
Pool in 3 ½ feet of water.          

His Father Dan has asked me send this to everyone I know and requested that
everyone forward it to their prayer lines immediately. Again, your prayers
are requested by the Shaver Family. It has been determined that Ian’s heart
did stop, and there could be brain damage. But right now there are bigger
issues. He is currently on a breathing machine and they are keeping his body
temp at 94 degrees to keep the brain from swelling. It is estimated that he
was under water for approximately 1 minute and he took in some pool water
that went right into his lungs. The chlorine and other chemicals have
dissolved the lungs interior lining which protects the lungs. His levels of
carbon dioxide increased in his blood yesterday afternoon and they had to
have an emergency procedure done at 7:00 pm EST last night. This was a very
hard decision as he only had a 50/50 chance that he would survive the
procedure. But without it, he wouldn’t have lived through the night due to
carbon dioxide poisoning. At 10:00 pm EST last night we were informed that
Ian survived the procedure and it was slated as a success!

Ian currently is in a medically induced coma and will remain there during
his recovery. He is on a type of bypass machine where his blood is going out
of the body, being cleansed, and then placed back in the body. He is also on
a ventilator as his lungs are not working at all. This is where they need
your immediate prayers!

Ian’s lungs must start working again in order to take him off the breathing
machine. His parents, Dan and Lisa, along with their other two sons, Zach
(10) and William (6), need your prayers. Please be specific and pray that
Ian’s lungs are going to recover and begin to work again. Please join me and
the many others that are seeing this e-mail request and pray for Ian Shaver
to have a complete recovery! This is very serious and I an is in a very
critical point in his recovery process. Both Ian and his family need your
prayers as his life is 100% in God’s hands. The Shaver’s know this and have
handed Ian over to God and wish that He would allow them more time with
their son if it is His plan.  

Thanks in advance from the Shaver Family and mine……..

Eddie Blanton

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Saturday, July 25, 2009 by Planet Janet.

I wrote a story for University City Magazine last year about the Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church’s Mindfulness Sangha (a.k.a. meditation group). My personal experience with this group was transforming, and I just love the venue.  Imagine a large, open room with a wall of windows, overlooking the nature outside.  Very conducive to meditation.

> > > Read the story, Aware in mind and body

Well, the group’s facilitator, Darla Davis, has organized an event led by Daigaku Rummé, an ordained Soto monk.  If you’re into meditating, come check it out!  See Darla’s details below…

DAIGAKU Rummé TO SPEAK IN CHARLOTTE

AUGUST 4th AT 7pm

Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church

9704 Mallard Creek Road

“Zen Within Activity: How Zazen Relates to Everyday Life” 

Please join the Piedmont UU Mindfulness Sangha and the Charlotte Zen Meditation Society on Tuesday, August 4th at Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church to hear Daigaku Rummé speak on “Zen Within Activity:  How Zazen Relates to Everyday Life.”  Meditation will begin at 7pm and be followed by Daigaku’s talk.

Daigaku Rummé was ordained a Soto monk by Harada Sekkei Roshi in 1978. For more than twenty-seven years, he practiced under Harada Roshi at Hosshinji Monastery in Fukui , Japan . Since March 2003, he has been on the staff of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center located in San Francisco . He resides at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the translator of The Essence of Zen by Harada Roshi, which was republished by Wisdom Publications in 2008.

Please arrive promptly and enter quietly.  There is no charge but a donation basket will be available for expressions of generosity.  For directions to Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church, please go to www.puuc.org

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Monday, February 16, 2009 by Planet Janet.

Charlotte Friends of Jung is sponsoring appearances and workshops with Jungian analyst and author James Hollis, Ph.D. in Charlotte on February 27 and 28.

If you’re like me, your only brush with Carl Jung’s teachings came in college.  When I completed my Scantron test in my one and only psychology class in 1989 (I’m feeling old now), that was the last time I gave the subject any thought.

That was until I met Bruce Elliott at an International Association of Business Communicators luncheon a few weeks ago.  Bruce is a person who wants to make the world a better place through his work with KM Design and in his personal endeavors, so I immediately liked him.  And, when he told me about this opportunity to learn more about myself and my “shadow,” I was intrigued.

You’re a good person; why do you sometimes do bad things? 

If you’re interested in learning  more and you want the opportunity to meet this revered author and analyst, see complete info below:


Time/Place:
Free Friday Evening Presentation, February 27, 7:30 pm;
sign-in begins at 7 pm.

Saturday workshop, February 28, 9:30 am to 4 pm;
sign-in at 9 am.

Both sessions at Carolinas Medical Center Auditorium.

Cost:
Friday lecture is free and open to the public.
Saturday workshop is $50 members; $60 nonmembers.

Please bring notebook and pen for writing exercises.

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Saturday, January 10, 2009 by Planet Janet.

Former “Fox News Rising” guitar-strumming traffic reporter and his partner in prayers, Andrew Weiler, demonstrate how to make H2Ono! Rockets for SouthPark Swim & Tennis Club campers

QUESTION:  What do you get when you tie a rubber chicken to a parachute fashioned from a plastic bag? 

ANSWER:  Ammo for Michael Haun and Andrew Weiler’s rocket-powered Rooster Booster, a contraption they fabricated out of an old water tank, bent steel, silver spray paint, some good old-fashioned elbow grease and their colorful imaginations.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, October 11, 2008 by Planet Janet.

They come seeking peace and awareness. They might be recovering  from a brutal crime, the effects of a disease, the illness of a loved one or simply workplace stress. Whatever brings them, they are finding solace in a meditation group that meets weekly at Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in University City.The group, called the Mindfulness Sangha – sangha means a community of Buddhist practitioners – meets each Tuesday in the church’s sanctuary. They’ve been practicing weekly group meditation since February 2003. “Many of us are so busy looking for wisdom outside of ourselves, that our inner wisdom never can surface,” said Darla Davis, lay leader of the group and a practicing Soto Zen Buddhist.

One side of the church sanctuary boasts an expansive wall of windows, leaving an unobstructed view to the natural surroundings outside.   “I like it there very much because of the trees and calming influence it provides,” said Meredith Merritt, a member of the sangha for the past four years.

After greetings and light conversation, group members quietly take their places in a semi-circle.  Some sit on meditation cushions with hands and legs folded, while others fully recline or choose chairs for comfort.

Davis reads a passage from Pema Chodron’s “Practicing Peace in Times of War” as her candle flickers on the altar and incense wafts throughout the room.  Setting sunrays bounce off the head of her bronze Buddha statue.

Davis rings a bell three times to begin their seated meditation, or zazen.   “The bells allows you to move more quickly between everyday actions you’re doing and into meditation by sort of following that sound as it goes away,” said Davis.
Except for the hum of the air conditioner, occasional street noise and creaks of the building, the sangha spends the next 25 minutes in silent meditation.

Davis rings the bell once, ending the sitting meditation.  The group rises, and she rings the bell two times to signal the beginning of their walking meditation, or kinhin.   Each person synchronizes his or her breath with slow, deliberate steps, taking ten minutes to complete a clockwise revolution.  In addition to getting leg circulation moving, “what it helps you to do is to gradually build to the point where you can be mindful when you’re alert and doing whatever you do in your everyday life,” said Davis.

After 20 more minutes of sitting meditation and another reading, their time together is over.

“We downplay much ritual,” said Davis.  “We try to make it as basic as possible so that anyone would feel welcome and sit with us and find the benefits of meditation.  We try to be as eclectic as possible.”

Merritt said: “There are many different ways to meditate.  It doesn’t really matter, as long as you do it.  It’s not about getting from A to Z; it’s about traveling from B to Y.  And as you practice, you will gradually become more mindful of the world around you.  Meditation makes you happier and frees you up from a lot of perceptions and prejudice.”

Solace in Meditation

Merritt turned to meditation after a near-death experience 20 years ago.  She was attacked by a man who put his hand over her mouth and nose and said he was going to kill her, as he shoved Merritt’s face into the snow.  Unable to breathe, she described seeing a “black space with an even blacker space, where if I had gone through it, I would have been dead.”

“When he got up, he said, ‘Oh, my God.   I’ve got the wrong person.’”  Then he apologized and ran off.

With Merritt’s cooperation, the police were able to identify her attacker and his intended victim, his ex-girlfriend who lived in the same neighborhood and who owned a white jacket similar to Merritt’s.

Merritt says: “I realized that my spiritual work in this lifetime had not been completed.”

Her journey into Buddhism started with reading books and culminated into a study of Tibetan Buddhism.  “My goal is not to obtain enlightenment in this lifetime.  I just try to get a little happier and a little kinder and little bit better able to laugh at myself and better able to accept my infirmities. “

Merritt, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis nine years ago, said, “Meditation gives me quite a lot more endurance and acceptance.  The phrase I use is ‘to transform suffering into compassion.’  That is my goal.”

Many Unitarian Universalists, like Davis, are attracted to Buddhism because of the clarity and insight meditation adds to their everyday lives, in addition to aiding stress relief.  For some Unitarians, the spiritual framework of meditation counterbalances their secular quest for knowledge.  Many Unitarians believe in karma – the understanding of the causes and effects of one’s deeds.  Still others relate to Buddhism’s fundamental belief in attaining enlightenment, or Bodhi, when one is “awakened” to the truth about life.

Unitarian Universalism is a creedless liberal religion with Judeo-Christian roots.  In each of the 1,041 UU congregations around the world, people of all colors, religious and non-religious backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities are welcomed and encouraged to seek their own spiritual path.  Famous Unitarians include Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Benjamin Franklin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louisa May Alcott and Christopher Reeve.

Davis, once a self-described “nightstand Buddhist” who occasionally meditated, put down the books and took her study to the next level when she attended a day of mindfulness with the Rev. Teijo Munnich of the Great Tree Zen Temple based in Alexander, N.C.  After years of practice, Davis took the Buddhist Precepts in a Jukai (lay ordination) ceremony in April 2008.

First workplace stress, and then her husband Scott’s diagnosis with a terminal illness led Davis to seek refuge in meditation. She said:  “I was dealing with all of that and spending so much time worrying about the future and stressing and missing my everyday life.  He needed me to enjoy our every minute together.”

In March 2001, he was diagnosed with primary amyloidosis, a rare blood disease affecting only eight out of 11 million people per year.  In early 2003, after her husband underwent his second stem cell transplant and endured chemotherapy, Davis realized she needed help to “cope with the reality of life.”  It was then that she started the sangha with then PUUC minister Wyman Rousseau.  Davis’ husband died in January 2006.

“In order for me to be present with Scott, I had to have time and awareness of what was going on with me.  I was able, I think, to stay present with him and where he was at each moment those last few years we were together, and it enabled me not to have a lot of regrets.  That was such a gift. “

Want To Go?  Join the Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church Mindfulness Sangha every Tuesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. at 9704 Mallard Creek Rd.  People of all beliefs are welcome.  For more information, e-mail info@puuc.com.

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008 by Planet Janet.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Charlotte and the Shower of Stoles Project toured 18 houses of
worship around Charlotte during March. I had the pleasure of seeing the unique pairing at the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte.  The Shower of Stoles Project is a collection of more than 1,000 liturgical stoles, each representing the story of a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender religious leader. Read the rest of this entry »

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