Anne's Note today is Make Your Holy Days EZ. The Main article, Body Talk, invites us notice how our feelings about our bodies may influence our feelings about ourselves. The Healthy Living article is Natural Solutions for Itching. The Anne Talk, EZosophy Vows, is a talk given at Brazosport, Texas on Oct. 30, 2016. The Featured Product this month is Anne's new reprint of EZosophy: The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living. Click here to learn about Anne's newest book.

The EZ Mantra: "Everything can be EZ or at least EZier." – Anne Sermons Gillis

Living EZosophy, November 22, 2016
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 281-419-1775
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  A Note From Anne

Make Your Holy Days EZ

Dear ,

This is Thanksgiving week. Most people in the U. S. will sit with friends or family and eat more food than necessary as they give thanks for their blessings. It’s a week that says diets are obsolete and sugar is god. It’s a time when people initiate holiday hard attacks. It’s a time when time seems to speed up and people start to freak out. How weird is that? We have a season of hardships based on what is supposed to be a time of celebration.

My friend comes in from Memphis tomorrow and my husband, my friend, and I will go to another friend’s home for a pot luck on Thanksgiving Day. I’m thinking that’s the best way to do holidays; have a potluck, unless you have your meal catered. Make it EZ!

We’ve had too much electile (Thank you, Swami Beyondananda, for that term) dysfunction. Let’s not exchange the drama of the election for holiday drama. From November 1 to January 17 there are 29 holidays celebrated by seven of the world’s major religions. Let’s think of them as play dates rather than “have to do” dates. Give up trying to impress people, give up obligation, give up drama, give up stuffing, and give into the real holiday. It’s a holiday where we can experience the plenty we already have and drop the worry of lack. Don’t be lack-a-daisical; be phantasmagorical. Make magic. Get excited. Be a holiday maker, not a holiday breaker.

Happy holy days,

Anne

  Main Article

Body Talk

I used to be prejudiced toward older people. Maybe I still am. I didn’t realize the prejudice existed. I used to be prejudiced toward older people. I thought I was cool and that I calculated people's value equally.

As I aged, the bias turned itself against me. I loved my flaming curly red hair, but at age 52, I felt the call of wild: “Go natural.” I cut my hair into a boy-like cut and waited for the salt and pepper. It wasn’t there. My daily mirror checks exposed a crop of white hair. I called myself Quetip. I was one white-topped woman. One day a child pointed at me and asked his mom, “What is that grand mama doing?” I hold nothing against being a grand mom—really, I love it—but something snapped. That day I stepped out of my youth and became an older adult. I entered the youth of my old age.

I remember climbing the steps of the pyramids outside of Mexico City. I was greeted by an elder who said, “Welcome to the end of your youth.” I was 40 and wasn’t ready to give it up! I thought, “What does he know?” Twelve years later, I gave in. I was maturing.

I began to notice subtle changes in the way people looked at me. Maybe it was a projection, but people looked through me or past me as they hurried through their lives. As a younger woman, one who was often center stage, I was used to being noticed, but now, I receded to the sidelines of life.

My sister had a heart attack and I raced to LA to assist her recovery. When she returned home, she carried an assisted living package – a walker.  All of the sudden walkers were cool. I checked out the older passersby as I strolled through the streets of LA. I stopped and talked with people about their walkers. Behind these walkers were interesting people, not old folks. Again, my prejudices made themselves known. I previously looked down on people using canes and walkers, but now my contemporaries were using walking aids, wheel chairs, and scooters. As I awakened from a silent fog, I wondered, “How many filters and preconceived notions lurk in the dark corners of my mind? What thoughts do I look through that determine how I view others?” There’s not an answer; it was a moment of recognition: the mind has its secrets.

I’ve settled into my older years and continue to uncover and heal my prejudices. People don’t look at me the way they used to, but I’ve discovered that the transition from younger to older is not only about who I think I am; it’s about letting go of an image that I believed gave me some kind of advantage in life. No longer do I hold the success images of youth. I have less money; my wrinkled face watches the jiggles as I walk. Things hang off my body that previously stood at attention, but there’s a softness replacing the vigor of youth. There’s a knowing that I never was those things. I was never a body. I was never young or old. I was never my thoughts or beliefs. They were just an operating system. I was more, always more, and knowing that certainly makes my life EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

"My way is the High Way."
-- The Unlimited Infinite Universe

"I’ve always wanted to be a star, so I tried out for the role of Me, and got the part. I’m playing a white haired 68 year-old woman. It’s great part! It’s such a big play that there’s a part for everyone."
-- Anne Sermons Gillis

"We are standing in the midst of what we are looking for, but, like two-year-olds, we don't stay still long enough to see what's before us, in us, and what is operating through us. Fortunately, unlike some religious teachings, the Truth and Unconditional Love hold no animosity toward those who don't wake up. Just like parents wait patiently for their children to finish playing, the Universe stands by with open arms, ready for our awakening."
-- Anne Sermons Gillis

  Featured Product This Month

At last, the reprint of EZosophy: The art of EZ or at Least EZier Living, is out. If you've been wanting an EZier life, this book provides a clear path toward EZ.

EZosophy:The Art and Wisdom of Easy or At Least Easier Living is a simple philosophy that radically changes lives. It is a book for the spiritually-based reader who no longer values the ego driven struggle of contemporary life.

EZosophy will help readers:

• Give up Hard Attacks. Hardaholic no more.
• Drop the drama.
• Make your life EZier. Ease is not indolence. Rather, ease is the art of accomplishment without struggle.
• Learn to identify ego driven suffering (EDS).

Click here to check out Anne's newest book, Words Make A Difference, a book of affirmations, action plans, and deep insights into the human consciousness that transforms and heals the soul, the local and global community, and the planet. Travel with Gillis on a journey through deep psychology, metaphysics, and nondualism.

  What is EZosophy?

Click the graphic above to learn about EZosophy.

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  Healthy Living

Natural Solutions for Itching

Our dog Lucy is an itchy girl. We’ve doused her in special dog shampoos, carted her to the vet many times because of her skin, sprayed her, and applied daily peroxide. We’ve searched the internet, spoken with friends, who’ve offered great advice, and she’s worn a cone around her head for long periods to keep her from scratching holes in herself. She’s had a no grain diet, a raw meat diet, and sardines and expensive designer dog food. The itching gets better, but soon it returns. Just this morning, we washed her with a fungus killing, yeast killing shampoo. Despite all this, she’s a beauty, she’s smart, and she minds very well.

I can identify. I am itchy too. When I moved to Texas, I started wearing shoes after being bitten by fire ants several times. The bite site creates terrible itch. I’ve had itchy under arms; seems there’s no deodorant I’m not allergic to; and I’ve had some of the itchiest bites ever from some mysterious bugs - ones I never see, but they leave a red calling card. I have four mysterious bites now and one of them still itches. This is the kind of itch that comes with poison ivy. It is the kind of itch that makes me want to dig deep and hard, but I don’t.

While there are many medical solutions, salves, and potions that help relieve itching, I’ve found three easy solutions that work for localized itching.

Ice – it’s so simple. I just hold an ice cube over the itch and it stops itching. Ice seems to calm down the inflation and halt the itch.

Heat – Put a metal spoon in hot water (not hot enough to burn the skin), remove it, and put it on the bite sight. Amazing how effective this is.

Peppermint oil – This has worked on poison ivy itch and some of my other mysterious itches as well. Mix the peppermint with some oil, olive oil is fine, and rub the mixture on the bite or rash. I usually dip my finger in some coconut oil, rub it on the area, then add a drop of peppermint oil. The essential oil needs to be diluted before it goes on the skin.

It’s all natural, and drugs like hydrocortisone are chemicals and have adverse effects on the body. The body doesn’t recognize man-made chemicals, and once their jobs are done, the body must do something with them, and it’s usually not a good thing. While I’m not going to do the research on this, I know that natural solutions are preferable to chemical ones and they are often inexpensive and readily available.

Anne

  Anne Talks

EZosophy Vows

Didn’t get a chance to catch Anne’s talk last week? Here’s another chance.

Today's Anne Talk, EZosophy Vows, is a talk given at Brazosport, Texas on Oct. 30, 2016. Time: 26:24.

  Anne Art

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