... a temporary stay, a visit, a stopover, holiday, or vacation. I consider Life's Journeys on Earth to be Sojourns that evolve amidst beginnings and endings, with a stable, yet time-limited "shelf life" in between.
And we are over the moon with pride in our son, Evan, and our daughter-in-law, Isabel, as well as our ever-new reverence for Life, its cosmic movements of celestial proportions, and the emanations that Life actuates, so that incarnate Being is yet again fulfilled.
The baby is a boy by the first name Reed. The last I held in my arms an infant soul this small, it was when our daughter, Erin, was born. And Reed has a look as similar to me as I recall Erin’s visage was. Except he is a boy — unmistakably, as I saw at my first sight of him au naturale. (And Thank You muchly for sharing that mental picture with us!)
For certain, I already know that, in a very few months, Reed will be flying in my arms, like this:
Grandpa’s Arms
This blog entry will be uncharacteristically short, because Melanie, Erin, and I are traveling over five hours to enjoy three days in Crested Butte, Colorado — a sweet mountain town that Budget Travel selected this year as a semi-finalist for recognition as America’s Coolest Small Town.
But I digress … We are going as Grandparents (I like the sound of that!) to care for Reed, while his brilliant and beautiful parents attend (and Evan officiates) one of his good friend’s weddings. (We don’t mind at all!)
Our children are grown now and ever-maturing (as are we). And we see our “empty nest” continually overflowing with Life’s new adventurous perils and payoffs. In short, what a Consummate Blessing Life Truly Is … My Chariot Awaits … Layta …
Our current world is seen by many to be on fire — not only at the molten core of the planet itself, but also close to our physical home bases on Mother Earth, as well. Her “skin” (the earthen surface on which we live and breathe) is presently inflamed due to intense, “psoriasis-like” human doings and misdoings — toward which the Earth Mother has her own kind of natural, inherently powerful “autoimmune” responses.
A World on Fire (Photo by Annice Lyn for TIME)
Such is pictured (above) in this mural that artist Red Hong Yi created out of 50,000 matchsticks. It represents how the global climate crisis connects all of us. Hence, it leads our imaginations toward the vast global scale where the pandemic could well lead us to a better, greener world.
In that same vein, on this week’s cover of TIME magazine is a large-print title, CLIMATE IS EVERYTHING. And on the attendant topic line, it observes that “As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s becoming clear: In every aspect of what comes next — how we plan, build, sell, educate, legislate, move, and create — our unified work is to address climate change.
The lead query in a similar article in the latest edition of Sierra (the national magazine of the Sierra Club) is this: “Will a Circular Economy Save the Planet? — The vision of an industrial society in sync with nature may have us spinning in circles.”
That perception, as best I can decipher it, draws a picture of a “circular economy” that is inspired by nature’s capacity to eliminate waste by transforming it into renewed fodder for its naturally integrated ecosystems. For one huge example, redesigning industrial manufacturing where the lion’s share of materials are used and continuously reused can dramatically lessen harmful environmental impacts.
Yet meanwhile, amidst the omnipresent Macrocosm, Earth orbits around one of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. Although our planet is, by no means, at the center of the cosmos, there is cause to think of Earth and its myriad life forms as being singularly special.
Supporting evidence comes from the details of our planetary circumstances, as well as from observations of certain fundamental constants in nature that appear to be “fine-tuned” for the existence of life.
Is Earth’s Life unique in the Universe? To know, in the end, whether Life exists beyond Earth, one must come to terms with the nature of one’s own significance here and now. Hence, any of Creation’s primeval elements like Climate, are essentially “closer than hands and feet” in the experience of us, each and all.
That, as a matter of course, begs the fundamental question, “What is the nature of my own personal “climate”, one moment to the next? Is my life’s every element part and parcel of the manifest expressions of Love, Truth, and Life?”
Living full-throated answers to such compelling questions is my full time occupation and deepest desire.
All the while, the Ever Unfolding Journey of All Journeys Continues …
An “everyman” (or every-woman) is one of the many people on Mother Earth who think of themselves as ordinary. And an “adventure” is an exciting journey or activity on which “ordinary” people can and will enjoy quite an extraordinary experience.
And the relatively small number of people who have gained specialized knowledge, expertise, and/or interest in “The Esoteric” can also be quite accomplished adventurers themselves …
A visionary adventurer
The word, “Esoteric”, is widely and arbitrarily used by many to identify several diverse fields of inquiry and rarefied pursuits, distant from the lives and concerns of many ordinary people.
Are such impractical elements far removed from your experience?
If they are not that distant from you (in fact, they might even be “closer than hands and feet”) — Then you may want to ask yourself: Are you, by chance, so self-consciously reticent. or otherwise ill at ease, that you shrink away from identifying or associating with them — let alone practicing in such fields? Well then …
Please relax, and be fully assured that any of your close-kept secrets are safe here. (And to be clear, this specialized “note to oneself” was once smack dab in my own wheelhouse!)
Another exploratory question to ask is: “When did I last read something that was almost impossible for the mind to grasp? Recently?” (Food for thought, perhaps …)
I have had some intriguing experiences of late. They tend at times to appear at around 3am-ish — when I (like most other locals) am more asleep than awake.
It seems to be a prime time nowadays when I entertain a recurrent set of dreams where I adventure into a foreign land, whilst trying on a new language. At certain times, I recall (with sublime indifference) that newly foreign tongue being my earthly “everyman” vernacular.
All the while, I deeply feel at home with the ineffable vibratory currents which I perceive perfusing my soul like a fine oil. There, I am gratefully aware of a new “Knowing” that is “Me” — beyond any acquired knowledge, academic logic chains, subconscious instincts, or persistent habits of concept.
That inner “home base” of the Soul is mine alone; It is solely for me to tend, keep, and encompass. Self-judgment just does not exist there — where it would have zero time & space to breathe & breed, when it certainly has no need to do so.
Then, when I awaken for “real” — relatively early, amidst another morning’s fresh new dawning (on earth) — I find myself freed from memories that chronologically defuse back in time (starting with yesterday’s work memos scrawled on bits of scrap paper, now destined for the recycle bin).
Now fully cognizant, spiritually awakened, and deeply refreshed, I behold Myself as a humble & inherently kind Everyman on Earth — having been royally treated to an esoteric adventure …
All in a Creative Day’s Play amidst the Eternal Present Moment … What a Blessing Life Is
At present, eight months away from my becoming a septuagenarian (a 70-year old), I have seen my name on many a mailing list from which profuse influxes of researched material abound — much of it with nurturing narratives and associated advice imparted to “mature” (i.e. older) men like me.
“What you DO know can SAVE you”
Highly promoted publications from medical experts (such as the “Harvard Heart Letter”, and the Massachusetts General Hospital’s “Mind, Mood & Memory”) point to facts and identify fictions as regards the state of health and habits of wellness (for better or worse) in men 60 and over.
The texts — which address common questions from patients, relatives, and the public — serve as clarifying (and profitable) adjuncts to basic hospital services. A few common questions submitted by “seasoned” men are these:
— Can controlling my blood pressure improve my memory? — Why should I ask my doctor to check my blood pressure in both arms? — For older men, can sex bring on a heart attack? — What if my heart flutters, flip-flops, or skips a beat? — Is there such a thing as a broken heart?
In that vain — and in my personal experience as a healthy and generally informed reader — I see such publications earnestly attempting to accurately communicate to men the vital and urgent need to ongoingly establish and sustain their own personal self care, specifically aimed toward maximum health and wellness.
The large-print lead line in the most recent “Harvard Health Letter” proclaims: FALSE — “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” TRUE — “What you DO know can SAVE you.”
Then, an elaboration on that salient point states … “Take ‘silent’ heart attacks, for example: They account for a shocking 45-50% of all heart attacks. They’re called ‘silent’ because their signs and symptoms are commonly brief or minor — typically with very mild chest pain (if any). That’s why those attacks are often ignored or attributed to seemingly routine symptoms like heartburn or muscle pain.
“Fact is, silent heart attacks can create scar tissue in the heart, thus raising the risk of a second, even more dangerous heart attack.”
I see this (potentially lethal) malady as one among a plethora of physical disruptions that millions of people on earth are experiencing at present. And — if a fraction of those (quite a large fraction, I sense) are facing what I have met in times past, it involves far more than physical factors: Moods of mind and memory are also actuated in full.
Firstly, let’s be clear as to what a “mood” actually is … A Mood, in the most general sense, is seen as a “temporary state of mind or feeling” — as in “People seem to be in a very good mood today”. Yet the adjective “moody” often bears a more specific and conditional connotation, as depicts one “given to unpredictable changes of mood, especially sudden bouts of gloominess or sullenness.”
On one hand, with the phrasing “moods of mind and memory”, one attempts to differentiate the mind’s (emotionally charged) assessments of present-moment dynamics now in play, from the memory’s tendency toward fictional reconstructions (hence, inevitable misperceptions) of the already proven past.
Then, on the other hand — in light of unique opportunities destined for each of us — we may indeed elect to live Life anew in each moment, amidst preferences we choose on our own unique terms. Meanwhile, we just might entertain, in childlike wonderment, vivid revelations with intrinsic incentives that move us along apace.
Yet how, when, and with what degree of ease will all of this come about? Perhaps this is prime time when a mentor may well be a Godsend — IF, of course, one’s chosen mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who encourages and supports one to manage one’s own continual learning, in order to maximize one’s own limitless potential, still latent skills, & Life’s “finest wine” yet to be tasted.
In addition, a perceptive mentor can provide a setting where one’s moods help one discern how to best usher a catharsis of repressed emotions into a finely patterned state of inner peace.
Also, “now” is always prime time for realization — when the highest aspects of our moods are what awaken us to ever present, yet momentarily momentous expressions of Divine Mind that re-sound residual overtones ever divined from the Ancient of Days.
And as such, there abides an accord (well beyond outward habits of thought) in the depths of Soul Knowing, where Reality, Legacy & the Heritage of Ages are wholly respected and safely protected.
For some time now, I myself have gained, step by step, a privileged awareness of vibratory elements that precede all earthly actions and manifest achievements.
In other words, visible results (present & future) are the precise effects of Invisible Cause (“SourceEnergy”) — Emanations that balance and attune the qualities and quantities of the soul’s real-time experiences of resonance and resistance.
That SourceEnergy is Itself the causal Power that creates Worlds throughout the Universe. Naturally of course, that includes dear Mother Earth — where, in Her Enfoldment, we incarnate ones — each and all — live, move, and have our Being.
And the perfect Mentor, attuned in the Ways of SourceEnergy, inherently Sees and Knows the Wonderment of You & Your World as Whole & in One Accord.
This is the “Now” when the Mentor Answers Your Call. And the Divine in You Sees and Knows that YOU — in Unison with your Mindfulness, Moods, and Memory — Are The Answer.
I have meditated ongoingly, for over four years now, with eyes anew — Eyes that now envision Abundance in a much more expanded way than I could even glimpse before Life called on me to release my self-conscious efforts to achieve, and enjoy the freedom of unfettered Being.
What a relief! From what? For one thing, from times that advanced my concerns over finances.
Such times posed enough of a distraction that I could too easily lose resonance with the robust Essences of Abundance– not only Prosperity, but moreover, naturally inherent Abundances of:
Health & Wellness of Being, Happiness & Love of Life, Vibrant Energy (Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual), as well as a Balance of Satisfaction Now & a Clear Expectancy of What Can Be.
The True Meaning of Abundance and the Value of Strong Bonds
I am reminded of a story that imparts powerful significance: More than a century ago, a young, rookie newspaper reporter — new to town and filling in for a last-minute substitution in the paper’s newsroom — was hastily assigned to do an interview. That chance meeting was (as was later journaled), “when the Hand of Destiny reached out.”
The young reporter in 1908 was Napoleon Hill — the now-legendary author who ushered in a new philosophy of personal achievement central to a “success movement” in the last century.
The man he met was Andrew Carnegie — Steel magnate, and the richest man alive at the time. Amidst the 73-year-old millionaire’s 64-room mansion in Manhattan, Carnegie evidently told robust tales of his achievements — except one still not certain to involve Napoleon Hill himself.
That was until Carnegie, in fact, proposed an intriguingly futuristic venture with him in mind: “The opportunity to pioneer the world’s first practical philosophy of individual achievement.”
“I will introduce you to men who can and will collaborate with you in its organization,” Carnegie stated, then asked, “Do you want the opportunity? And will you finish the job if I give it to you?”
“Yes!” Napoleon proclaimed without hesitation. “I’ll undertake the job — and I will finish it!”
At last, Carnegie, the master commander, presented a defining challenge, with this question: “If I give you this opportunity, are you willing to devote 20 years of your time to research the causes of success and failure without pay, earning your own living as you go along?”
When the generation’s most powerful businessman saw that Napoleon was beyond startled — suddenly nonplussed, perplexed, confused, and bewildered — Carnegie explained,”It is not unwillingness to supply the money. It is my desire to know if you have in you the natural capacity to ‘go the extra mile’ — that is, to render service before trying to collect for it.”
Indeed, Napoleon willingly and ably met Andrew Carnegie’s mandate with sustained action: He went on to design and organize an American philosophy of personal achievement.
For the next 20 years, he Interviewed such men as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt, John Rockefeller, and many other leaders and innovators.
From those teachings came “Think and Grow Rich” — considered by many to be the greatest success book ever written. It offered essential principles for improving one’s health, wealth, and success — Theorems as powerful and pertinent today as when they were drawn 70 years ago.
What I see in this story — and what determined my sharing it with you now — derives from a knowing that my own experience is similar in essence to that of Napoleon Hill’s, depicted here.
Factual elements include this particularly notable similarity (herein below): Hill spent 20 years without salary, interacting with people at the front edge of their expert fields. He received varied sources of support, increasing as his focused purpose gained momentum.
I myself spent more than 20 years without salary, but with a livelihood supported by a network of intentional communities, where I worked with people at the front edge of ontological experience.
Each of the experiences (both Napoleon Hill’s and mine) was perfectly destined for each of us.
In the end, I realize that my own resonance with each of the Essences of Abundance has been, is now, and will ever be precisely what I let It Be. May Abundance Fully Appear for Us, Each & All.
