Past episodes on the Scent of Light

I will do a little catch-up here by listing the past shows since the show first was aired on Radio KOWS 92.5 FM last Mother’s Day 2018.  The list is also updated at http://kennethenorton.com/SOL.html

Scent of Light Episodes

Each episode has its own page on this website.  The audio files and transcripts are available on the respective pages. The episodes are about 5 minutes long if it is just the voice recording. If it is a radio stream recording it will include an introduction by Andre’ Marc and background music he has chosen, extending the show a couple of minutes.

Date	Description  (Click the name or date for the link to the show’s webpage)
1/27/19	Mercy
1/13/2019	Healing  (with music and postword)
12/23/2018	Love (with music and postword)
12/9/2018	Peace (with music and comments)
11/25/2018	Peace (no music)
11/11/2018	Joy
10/28/2018	Grace
10/14/2018	Tao of a Stalk of Wheat (repeat of 7/8/18)
9/23/2018	Gratitude, Complaint, Breath
9/9/2018	Ten Words to the Creative Spirit
8/12/2018	Scent of Light  (Namesake for the Series)
7/22/2018	The Word
7/8/2018	Tao of a Stalk of Wheat
6/24/2018	Mentoring
5/28/2018	Memorial Day
5/13/2018	Mother’s Day  (First Show)

About the show Scent of Light

 The Scent of Light is a regular series of 5-minute vignettes produced by Ken Norton for the Radio Spotlight Magazine hosted by Andre’ Marc on Radio KOWS 92.5 FM on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month between 2 to 4 PM, streaming live at  kows.fm.

Each vignette is written and recorded in Ken’s home studio in Santa Rosa, California. Each episode is archived on its own webpage at this website and is included in the  list above. The first vignette was produced for Mother’s Day May 13, 2018. The show Scent of Light is named after a poem of Hafiz, which was first introduced on the sixth show of August 12, 2018 with the words:

Welcome to the Scent of Light. My name is Ken Norton. This is the newly conceived name of this 5-minute vignette I produce. It just came to me last week upon receiving a birthday gift from my friend Val, an anthology of poems by Hafiz, the great Sufi master, as translated by Daniel Ladinsky, in his book called The Gift. I opened the book to this poem.

Like a great starving Beast
My body is quivering
Fixed
On the scent
Of
Light.

This poem captures my intention for the show. I am on the scent of light with this conviction of Hafiz.

100 Words to Describe the Tao of a Stalk of Wheat

I wrote this poem on October 3rd, 2017 upon given a challenge by my Tai Chi Chuan Master David Chung.   Five days later on Sunday October 8th I had second thoughts about the use of the word “sparks,” but I decided to keep the word as I realized that sparks are in the flow of life.  Later that night I and my city of Santa Rosa felt the transformative abundance of sparks in the Tubbs Wildfire Disaster of 2017.

Watch the feeling world, and your states of feeling.  That is how we receive guidance.  It is best to seek guidance after dwelling in the “stillness” within, free of emotional desperation, revenge, fear and anger, while trusting in being beloved as a vital contributor of the universe now in this space and time.  This kept me and my wife Elaine centered during the crisis with familiar forms of communication and perception cut off, guiding us step by step. We also made sure our soulcrafts’ operating system functions were humming by referring to my mentor’s Ten Words to the Creative Spirit.

Meeting Grace

                                                                  Poem and Photo (c) 2016 Kenneth E. Norton

Meeting Grace

 

To light beyond the light

breathe in the sight.

Know who knows

friends and foes

shines on both.

Be kind.

You.

I

be kind,

shine on both

friends and foes,

know who knows

breathes out insight

in awe beyond the light.

                  

                                     Kenneth E. Norton

January 26, 2016

– I was inspired by a photo of a butterfly ready to fly to the sun which I took on 8/7/2015, while remembering recent statements of of the Dalai Lama with Pope Francis concurring the essence of spirituality is to be kind, and Gandhi’s Ahimsa and Satyagraha of living truth in patience for ignorance in man to fade upon or after meeting one another.

Photo and Poem © 2016 Kenneth E. Norton

Ten Words to the Creative Spirit by William Hermanns, my mentor – Start your day making sure your spiritual instruments are turned on by these Ten Words to keep you in tune with the Creative Spirit.

               Ten Words to the Creative Spirit  

Give me Grace so I walk uplifted through this day.

Give me Joy so my heart has enough and to spare for others.

Give me Peace so an angelic spirit accompanies me wherever I go.

Give me Love so darkness changes to sunshine where I am.

Give me Healing so spirit is the light of the flesh.

Give me Mercy so my free will chooses mercy.

Give me Trust so no despair can grip my soul.

Give me Power so I can speak with authority.

Give me Wisdom so I cannot be bribed by intellect.

Give me Feeling so I can vibrate your truth.

                                                                                  William Hermanns

http://www.williamhermanns.com/Poem/P264.html

Approaching 90 years in age and having suffered in two world wars, my mentor, the poet and educator William Hermanns, carefully chose  the words for his poem Ten Words to the Creative Spirit, to bring myself, as his spiritual son, into alignment with my True Self, my Soul, as I assisted him preparing essays and manuscripts about his mentors, including Francis of Assisi, Einstein and Yogananda. In the summer of 2015 I rediscovered this poem and remembered that I saw the Ten Words in action in my mentor’s presence.  In my reflection I saw how the presence or lack of any of the Ten Words affected my life since he passed away in 1990 after being in my life for 20 years.

I see the Ten Words now as vital spiritual functions on the instrument panel of my Soulcraft that is travelling through myriads of circumstances, familiar and strange, and these ten functions when ON are able to influence relationships, even the non-human, with clear perception of self and others and affect the manifestation in space and time around the Soulcraft to guide it in the timing of Creative Spirit.  When OFF, my Soul Craft is vulnerable to collisions with Reality flying partially blinded as well as to predation by such spirits as fear, greed and revenge attracted to myself and others.

Reading these Ten Words in the morning to start the day, puts them ON in my consciousness. If I notice a lack in any of the Ten Words, maybe through an upset, all the more the reason to tell Creative Spirit of the need for my Soul increase its function for me to live optimally as the incarnation of the Creative Spirit.  My wife and partner Elaine says it works for her, too.

Here is an example:  Watch when you meditate with just one breath on the verse with the word Peace. Just a moment,  one  breath.  This can be done in any circumstance.  Notice how your perception of people and other creatures is affected. Notice how around you people and non-humans respond.  They feel the peace and then become angels in helping you – for they feel one with peace aligned with Creative Spirit.  it is core to them, too, and they want to serve peace and the person that is responsible for incarnating that peace with the Word.  The other 9 Words work in their way, each uniquely suited for the moment.  Notice also the relationships and synergy between each of the Ten Words,  and they will become especially useful as the Wisdom grows in you.  The Ten Words are not confined to one or no religion but common to all.  Creative Spirit does not have to be a person but can – it is Spirit, capitalized or not.

No Soul should be without these Ten Words, and no Soul Craft without these ten functions.  It would be good if the Ten Words would somehow blink in the morning and cause your attention to turn ON each of the Ten Words for the day’s journey in Creative Spirit!   I am handing out cards with this printed on it.  I love the genuine smiles of joy and even relief , as well as the conversations that ensue.  I have memorized the lines so I can repeat them on my walk, or in the car, alone or with people.   Let me know how they work for you by emailing me and/or by Liking the facebook page William Hermanns – Life and Works.

What is Constant?

        What is Constant?

What is constant when I see?

What is constant when I hear?

What is constant when I touch?

What is constant when I talk?

What is constant when I taste?

What is constant when I smell?

What is constant when I feel?

What is constant when I heal?

What is constant when I walk?

What is constant when I sit?

What is constant when I lie?

What is constant when I fly?

What is constant when I drive?

What is constant when I run?

What is constant when I brush?

What is constant when I rub?

What is constant when I sleep?

What is constant when I think?

What is constant when I count?

What is constant when I save?

What is constant when I lose?

What is constant when I fall?

What is constant when I rise?

What is constant when I know?

What is constant when I do not know?

What is constant when I arrive?

What is constant when I err?

What is constant when I rage?

What is constant when I love?

What is constant when I hate?

What is constant when I forgive?

What is constant when I trust?

What is constant when I despair?

What is constant when I worry?

What is constant when I am late?

What is constant when I am early?

What is constant when I fail?

What is constant when I succeed?

What is constant when I miss?

What is constant when I smile?

What is constant when I frown?

What is constant when I breathe?

What is constant when I swallow?

What is constant when I do nothing?

What is constant when I meditate?

What is constant when I am still?

What is constant when I am?

What is constant when I am not?

                           Kenneth E. Norton

Santa Rosa, CA  July 26, 2015  Birthday musing

Bee Still

Bee

still

still bee

not still

bee

still

                                                                                                                         Kenneth E. Norton

Still

Still

Still here
Still now
I know Still
I still know Still
Still
I
I breathe in
I rest
I breathe out
I rest
I know Still
Still
I

Kenneth E. Norton
To Sharon Maser, January 24, 2015, 3 weeks before Sharon’s death due to cancer.

Mother

It’s Mother’s Day and Mom told me this morning by phone that she went to 7:30 Mass and after eating her soft boiled egg will go to the hospital to visit my Dad, who was admitted yesterday for probably what is pneumonia.  He’s in his 90th year and Mom just celebrated her 88th birthday.  They have been great partners on their spiritual journey with all its twists and turns and valleys and mountains.  That is a great gift of mentoring for me and my 7 younger siblings.  I am posting a poem I wrote in the early 1970s in my twenties:

My mother Mary Francis Norton

 

       Mother

Sparked together

a thousand sparks,

expand, divide

and touch one body

to part one body

alive and crying

for cord and milk.

Inch to foot

run to crawl,

happy wonder:

what is.

Yes, emerged

now grown

and merged

I watch you

alive with umbilical love.

I ask “What is?”

You answer “Who.”

Hand to hand.

I am you and we,

directed spontaneity.

 

          Kenneth Edward Norton

I just did a search of my ancestor’s up the umbilical line of mother, and got back to my great, great, great grandmother Johanna Relihan, married to Richard James of Drumalought WOLFE (born in 1764 in Cratloe, Co Limerick, Ireland).  I haven’t been able to find out more about Johanna and her parents.  Wolfe was also spelled Woulfe.

Kenneth Edward Norton <– Mary Frances Norton  (b. 1924 Chicago) <– Kathleen Rose Kurtz (b. 1898 Illinois, d. 1987 Arcadia, CA) <– Joanne Rose Connell  (b.1867 Oil City, PA – d.1950 Chicago) <– Catherine Walsh (b. 1818, Listowel, Kerry, Ireland, emigrated to USA probably due to potato famine of 1845-52, died 1896 Sheboygan, WI <– Johanna (Relihan) Wolfe (Ireland)

Of course there are lots of lines of ancestors I could follow, but the most influential were most likely these umbilical relationships for the amount of time in the womb, at the breasts, and at the table with mom, and she with her mom, and ….  I wish there were some stories along with the names and dates.

Communion of saints

I experienced a sign through synchronicity on January 26, 2014.  I was dealing with a flu or something causing me much distress in my GI tract and feeling lousy.  At 3 am I got up to make another cup of tea to help calm my body, and Elaine was up.  I told her that my mentor Professor William Hermanns had told me that if he was God he would make man better, and then I looked up and yelled, “OK, Professor, now is your time to show your stuff and make me better!”  I was able to sleep a bit and then around 8 AM I got up and went to the library to look up some healing herbs when I pulled out a small dark green  paperback book the Raw Vegetable Juice book by N.W. Walker.  I thumbed through it and then skipped to the back inside cover page where I discovered a poem penciled in by my mentor dedicated to me and dated January 26, 1979.  Here is what he had written to me 35 years ago when I was dealing with an auto-immune dis-ease ulcerative colitis, which today was flaring up with this run of the flu.

Be True to Yourself

Be true to yourself.  Be still and know:
No bonds of the blood, and no nation,
No yesterday’s chain, no tomorrow’s hope –
The now is your truth, your salvation.

Rise in your fullness and create
Be conscious of only one bond:
Your partnership with cosmic laws.
Go forth, create your beyond.

William Hermanns

[P605 Kingscote Gardens, Stanford, 7/26/1979; dedicated to Ken;

http://www.williamhermanns.com/Poem/P605.html ]

So, in spite of the momentary distress, I know I am on a spiritual journey, and this dis-ease will pass, and I will continue to create my beyond in partnership with cosmic laws.  Perhaps my distress is caused by detoxification and letting go of old cells for the creation of new more suitable for my upcoming creations?  Whatever, I do know that somehow I am in communion with some life energy of my mentor and with the cosmos through this sign of synchronicity.    Raised as a Catholic, I was taught about the Communion of Saints.  I think that this is a spirit family that we are born into through living this life according to our true purpose and led by our conscience, that voice of our True Self.

My mentor was raised Jewish but he was baptized a Catholic by Bishop Fulton Sheen in 1952 with the name Francis Paul.  The year after I met my mentor he took me to Assisi to be initiated into the Franciscan Third Order of lay people, as St. Francis was the saint I admired and whose name I chose to be confirmed a Catholic as a young adult.  I helped him over 19 years with his manuscripts and cared for him until his death in 1990.  I am more than a Catholic through my experiences with my mentor.  I am cosmic.   I keep up the communion with him through such experiences as related above and also through the website I constructed in his honor.  I am including the following link as this webpage has some photos of him with me, with another poem he wrote to me called My Spiritual Son, to show more on the relationship that began in 1970 and continues beyond my mentor’s death to today and I am sure into the future:

http://www.williamhermanns.com/Trustee.html

Are you noticing the signs in your life and heeding them?  Do you have timeless relationships?

Basest Ball Diamond in Sonoma County, California

Because we have to deal with privilege of elected officials over the rights of citizens, I have constructed this base-ball diamond to describe the actions we must take in Sonoma County to approach some semblance of democracy to evolve out of traditionally held bigotries of better-than-you mindset, that not just sheriff deputies like Erich Gelhaus has expressed in his social media and SWAT Magazine posts, but is deep seated in ordinary folks in denial with cognitive dissonance.  One just has to read the comments to the articles on the Press Democrat website.  If 2000 years of religious organizations and some times theocracies of Christianity, and more years of Judaism and a bit less of Islam haven’t been able to deal with this arrogance of humans, we better look beyond organizations and to within for intuitive guidance of that still place of our True Self naturally living out the commandment of love one another and unity consciousness with the Divine for right timing and placement of our being shining its light.

I am repeating the notes  for the hyperlinks.

1st Base  –  

Santa Rosa/Sonoma County Sheriff SWAT team allowing kids to play with automatic weapons and grenades at a Neighborhood Gang Violence Prevention Picnc in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in SW Santa Rosa in August 2011. Photo by Attila Nagy.  Published in  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110815/articles/110819663     

also in http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027746/Pictures-children-handling-SWAT-team-weapons-causes-outrage.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Read Santa Rosa Mayor Olivares (a former SR cop) defend the kids playing with the SWAT weapons.

http://santarosa.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2011/08/news/santa-rosa-mayor-defends-kids-handling-swat-weapons/

2nd Base:

2 years later after being taught by police officers in Santa Rosa  the fun of playing with automatic weapons, Andy Lopez was shot and killed by sheriff and military sharpshooter trainer Erich Gelhaus while the boy Andy was carrying a toy gun, in a safe manner returning home in his neighborhood.  Such toy playing was encoraged by the SWAT team at 1st Base.

3rd Base:

1 week  after  the killing of  Andy Lopez –  Grief of the parents and the  community

Sujey Lopez clutches the coffin holding her 13-year-old son as her husband Rodrigo Lopez consoles her during Andy Lopez’s funeral Mass on Tuesday at Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa. [Press Democrat photo  10/29/13]

PD Editorial: A shooting that demands an explanation

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20131025/opinion/131029753

Home Base:

Mothers in White protesting at Sonoma County Board of Supervisors  on the delay of prosecuting Sheriff Deputy Erick Gelhaus,  Sheriff Freitas ginving Gelhaus back a desk job with pay, and the protocols in place allowing the police killing of children.   Mirrors were held up for the Supervisors to reflect on their decisions.  [Press Democrat photo  1/8/14]

 PD article: Protesters demand action for Andy Lopez killing

   http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140107/articles/140109717