we are ONE

I am just so sad, so blown away, so concerned for you and your family, and I can’t begin to imagine how you and yours are feeling. This sudden turn of events is just absolutely one of the things of life that doesn’t make sense.
 
My prayers are with you. You were so much a presence in my thoughts that i felt i needed to do a lot more “work”…sending you my energy, my prayers, the thought-energy, the directed waves of … my power into YOURS. Going to bed, for instance, seems too “trite” and so I keep getting up and praying for you.

People dislocated and despaired from earthquakes and natural disaster

Victims of floods, tsunamis, disease — and WAR!

People who are in pain, personal, political, or spiritual.

People who have lost dear ones, or fear dying themselves
…people in fear, anger, victimization … people in pain…. 

feeling lost on life's journey

I don’t know any reasons for what you’re going through, but I want you to know that stress in any way, shape, or form, can cause terrible things, and worsen bad ones that happen. Life itself is so stressful, we all know that. Some people (not YOU!) can barely force a smile on their faces, because they overly concern themselves with the negatives of life, rather than the ever-present positives. Please know, very sincerely, that I wish for you to be free of any feelings you might have, of feeling hopeless, or being a victim. Every thing does happen for a reason. Often we just don’t know what that reason might be.
 
Of course, if you, likewise, determine stress isn’t a factor, that this mishap has occured because of … i dunno, bad luck, genetics, nature going rampant, or ….whatever you prefer to call it … I leave that decision up to you. Me personally, I want to believe that all that happens has a purpose, and what doesn’t happen, likewise: that WHAT IS MEANT TO BE, WILL BE.
 
So here i am, writing you, a specific friend I’m thinking about, who is probably numb with frustration, sick with worry, and depressed because of the fickle hand of life he’s been dealt. I’m sure all of us know someone who feels like this. Whose life is hard. Who has family lost in the recent spate of worldwide tragedies. I hold each and every one of you in my arms, fellow human beans, and hug you with my heart. I feel all your pain. I feel the unsteadiness, the rising fear many are feeling in this journey we share, called life.

So much of what I want to tell you can be summed up by the corny saying, “let go let God.” It’s all i can think of this morning, after a pretty concerned night, praying for you. 

relax, and let the wave of life sweep you along

 I know it’s a worn saying. But there is so much wisdom in these four simple words, “let go let God” that they give me comfort when life goes a way I just can’t fathom, and can’t feel okay about because it’s too weird, too shaky, and not enough Magic for me. I can’t help it: I’m into the magic of life. That’s my forte. Seeing the gateway through which we can pass, and understand that things are not what they seem to be.

But for many of us, we think life should be OUR way, but then–the “Force” that is in charge of how we molecules of energy bounce around among each other–plays its hand, calls its shots, shoots its marbles, and we have …. catastrophes, miscalculations, frustrations–and in some case, serious health issues–or we get tossed around by the whim of nature, its winds, its calamities, its unpredictableness. 
 

Guardian of Nature, challenging us

All i can do at times like this, is pray. Prayer, to me, is a transferral of energy. Call it Grace, if you wish. It is a sending of intention, of LIGHT, thought, and of course, concern, to another situation, or person, or “thing.” I pray for my own self, of course, because it makes me feel better. When I pray for others, for the world situation in general, that also makes me feel better, and I believe, helps the world to heal. The energy of prayer is real. I can feel it in my body. I can feel it when others send theirs to me. I can feel it when I’m in a situation and I’m thinking of someone, and then, boom! the phone rings, and there they are! It happens all the time to me. I believe in the “invisible rays of energy” that we can send, through our minds, across the span of time and space. And this energy is what I call “God”…”Good-Orderly-Direction.” Nothing more, nothing less. Consciousness is another word for this Force, but doesn’t fit nicely the generic acronym G-o-d. When I pray, my consciousness is wrapped around you, lying in a hospital bed, or a Haitian under a leaky tent, or you, a Chilean trying not to feel the misery of your situation, or an beggar hoping to get some food soon, or my friend wondering if his heart will ever allow him to have a “normal” life, or … life at all? In prayer, my rays of consciousness are sent to you and directed toward you ailing, or you with the wondering mind, or you with the empty stomach, or you whose home has been ripped away, or your concerns and your family’s fears, and mine, too, when we awaken from the numbness of the next tidal wave of life, this one packing yet a bigger whalloping punch than the last.

Guardian of the People -- protecting us, surrounding us, energizing us

That’s all I can do. Give my worry, concern, and happiness of having you in my life, as part of my story and my journey, give it to the very much present Consciousness I call God, and let that Consciousness perform the miracle, heal the burst valves of one’s heart, provide shelter for the thousands made homeless by nature’s wrath, help to repair bridges from earthquakes, and fill the human spirit with hope and trust in the future. We all have enough psychic energy to spread to others. We can send our energies, take a moment to do so! to transmit energy, our “thought-seeds” to do the actual physical things, like heart operations that heal, and deliveries of food for the hungry that will save lives, and recruiting of engineers and surveyers to help build the fallen-down bridges that will keep up moving ever forward.

the continuousness of life's energies...always moving onward

Just as Michaelangelo depicted Creation on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, where the figure of “God” is reaching out his hand toward the naked figure of Adam, who, in turn, is reaching out for God’s assistance….we must reach out. Some of us do the asking, some of us do the responding. All us humans are in the constant state of asking and receiving, as depicted by God and Adam’s interchange on that ceiling. If one gets closer to the actual painting through closeup photographs, one sees that the artist kept the touch between God and man very close, nearly touching, but — there is a small gap. Just enough of a distance to remind us that we, indeed, are in a human existence, filled with unknowns and possibilities, and “God,” the Almighty Consciousness, the Source, the Force, the Creator–is within our grasp, but only if we reach out for IT. 
 
I’m so filled with emotion about your situation. And REALLY want you to know that all is well. No matter what, no matter what pain we suffer, as long as we keep smiling and letting life “do us”…we’ll get through our trials and tribulations, and grow into stronger, more centered, more complete human beings. We might even get as close to God as Adam’s little finger.
 
In the Light, with much love, your pal,

lordflea

SHe is not hurt.  HEr son, grandson and Constanza in old town are OK.  HEr husband on the farm is OK.

9 PM curfews in Concepcion to the south.  Lot of looting and general chaos.  Expect curfews to begin in Santiago.  Bridges and highways around Santiago down and destroyed. The ONLY thing working is the phone.  Cell towers down, TV towers down. It was a miracle I got her on the phone.

SHe is OK for now but I think we should stand by to front her some $ for food.

Entire infrastructure of the country has been wrecked.

IMagine what it must be like.  No way to get anything to eat.  For ANYBODY.

more later…gotta go. sorry haven’t been able to blog much. writing my book.

deep blue om

Staying focused on what I know i’m here to do doesn’t stop the distractions, just makes for more choices to be made. So many things going on. many wants to do, places to see, people to do them with. How to ever choose which to do, because of course I want to do them all, like everyone! The only way I can ever accomplish what I want to achieve with my work (arting and writing), to get published, is to focus focus focus. So here i am at my desk doing a final edit on my novel, and for the moment, putting on the back burner another project (nonfiction) that i’m working on with Dani, my writing partner…which will be attended to when my novel, the main project I’m invested in right now, is ready to be presented to find its publisher in early March.

BUT…working on what we want to achieve doesn’t stop the synchronicity of life happening, now does it? So here’s a tidbit to chew on that’ll make you laugh–and wonder at.

could this be the real Lord Flea?

Got a phone call this morning from Jamie, my good yoga pal up in new york city. She’s in charge of Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Project ( www.urbanzen.com ) . Sitting beside her as Jamie drank her morning cup of joe was Nicole, who’d just arrived back from Costa Rica, where she has a fish farm, deep in the cloud-forest mountains, close to where I also happen to spend a lot of time. Call it coincidence? Call is “a sign,” call it kismet–whatever alchemical, synchronistic term you choose to call it—three days ago Nicole had been given MY card when she went into an ice cream shop in the coastal village of Dominical, when the kind proprietress there used it as a recycled scrap of paper on which to write the name of a Big Apple restaurant for Nicole to check out when she returned home. I’d been in Dominical three weeks ago, for a surfing adventure. Now Nicole is back in the city, back to her job assisting my yoga pal Jamie (!!) in Donna Karen’s pet project, the Urban Zen organization, and Nicole casually says to Jamie, “Hey, do you happen to know Lordflea?” Jamie hoots and hollers, laughs and wiggles in delight of such PROOF, of what a small degree of separation we all have. She called me right then and there, and all three of us, me Jamie and Nicole, shared a moment of ecstatic wonder, marveling over just how exactly connected we ALL are, each and everyone one of us, on this here spinning blue globe we inhabit, as each of us continues to whirl like insane dervishes upon our own focused centers.

focused on the center of Being-ness: We are One

This particular instance of ”connection” is astounding, and real. The “sign” of how we all reach out in our energies without even being aware that it’s happening, to know, to share, to comingle with each other—it’s simple incredible, and oh so very real. Of course the connection is that we are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. For those who don’t know—they scoff. For my Jamie and her pal Nicole, our mutual connection is specifically about a sacred yoga pavillion just built in Uvita, Costa Rica, which I’ll discuss on my next blog. Check out www.lacusingalodge.com for a preview of my next discussion.

We who work on bringing the LIGHT of awareness (through yoga, zen, and other awareness modailities) to as many people as we can, with joy, with health, and with a hefty degree of comedy and entertainment, are always being give PROOF that our faith is real, our connections are strong. All we have to do is look for them. Wow. Take this connection we have with other, former living beings, for instance (given in humor, and to keep things light!) Now HERE’s the serendipity of life that keeps things rolling toward the right focus, i’ll say!

flies-at-beach

Keep smiling—we’re all connected!

flies waiting at the john

Are you with me? Still smiling?

flies tall and short

Short or tall. Fat or slim. Black, white, green or purple—all religions, all beings everywhere! WE ARE ONE!! Let the synchronicities roll! I’m feeling much more focused now, thanks. ahhhhhhh—oooommmmmm.

Back to my editing, Lordflea singing with cha

our secrest always come out

in the summer of 1964 a violent confrontation took place in downtown St. Augustine, one that propelled the swift passage of the Civil Rights Bill that had been stuck for months in Congress, due to nonstop filibustering proclaiming calls for segregation, still, by misguided southern Senators that unfortunately postponed the passage of this historic human rights bill during that era. Gathering to see his new film, “Crossing in St. Augustine,” a rapt audience listened to the story narrated by former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, one of my childhood heros. I was only 16 at the time of the events shown in the raw, emotional footage expertly edited by CB Hackworth in this edge-of-your-seat documentary.

andrew young, martin luther king, dr. r.b. hayling, at a St. Augustine press conference, '64

Organized by local dentist at the time, Dr. RB Hayling, the first dentist elected to Florida American Dental Association, the growing number of brave, peacefully-demonstrating-for-their-rights-blacks of St. Augustine stood fast against the increasing wave of hateful actions, taunting torments, and unspeakably horrible violence prepetrated against them because of mass rallies held in the downtown old “slave market,” which were led by extreme Christian racists, the KKK, and even the police. The entire audience gasped in disbelief when we learned that the sheriff of St. John’s County back then, was so misguided and hateful as to deputize members of the KKK to “enforce” peace by brutalizing any blacks who dared to do anything out of the limits of legal segregation. Young’s documentary shows how the blacks organized a walk “to cross” from their section of town, euphemistically named “Lincolnville,” to the town square, where an agitated mob waited for them at the slave market, wanting “blood and black heads to roll, and black flesh to burn.” This film, all true, was a horrific insight into what hatred can make a human being commit.

we all have CHOICES

Andrew Young, as King’s lieutenant in the civil rights movement that was gathering steam across the nation, particularly in the South at the time, had been sent to St. Augustine to organize Hayling’s committed protesters, even though they faced being hit by chains, their homes bombed, their persons spit upon, jailed—even killed. Hayling himself had been brutally beaten by the KKK, his house shot into, narrowly missing his wife, his thriving dental practice ruined, and his dog slain. On screen we saw a thirty-ish Young being beaten at the “Crossing” event, his assault vividly captured. As the audience watched this noble, elegant elderly stateman of today being kicked in the head by three hate-poisoned men as he curled into a fetal poisition on the asphalt, Andrew Young spoke on the film’s narration that he never knew to what extent he’d been assaulted until he saw, in 2006, the forgotten film footage of his beating in St. Augustine. “And then I got mad!” Young’s voice said to us last night at Flagler College’s Auditorium where he showed his latest film.

former ambassador andrew young, today

I don’t doubt that hardly any of us folks, whites, blacks and other ethnicities, who sat in the audience last night knew of the horrors that happened that hot summer July in 1964. But when we were shown the truth, gasps were heard everywhere , erect backs were seen, and smarting hot tears could be felt throughout the breathless audience.

we are ONE, your pain is my pain

St. Augustine was the place where Martin Luther King decided to come, had to come, after such brutal violence forced the non-violent movement of civil rights demonstrators, sympathetic whites and blacks, to gather here, to proclaim what was happening in St. Augustine as unjust, inhumane, and and un-Godly. To a menacing crowd of club and chain-swinging, Negro-hating racists, the crowd of non-violent marchers sang, “We Love Everybody.” And even though they shook with fear, and some did take blows that cracked black and white skulls, bloodied everybody, and knocked out teeth….nobody….not one demonstrator….FOUGHT BACK.  Encouraged by the leadership of Dr. Hayling, King and Young, sympathizers had come to St. Augustine from all over the States to join forces against the boiling anger of the equally gathering KKK, hate-spewing extremist Christians from all over the country, and diehard generic racists who came to this tiny historic town for a showdown of human rights, blacks against whites, hatred and love.

young and king at congressional hearing '64

Disguised as a KKK, a sympathetic pretend-racist taped what was happening and phoned first the Florida governor to report of the murderous mayhem happening right THEN, and the people who were about to be killed in St. Augustine’s square. The Florida Governor immediately called Washington, DC. …. and spoke directly to President Lyndon Johnson. When the President realized what was happening he took action against the long-winded, months-long filibustering against the Civil Rights Bill going on in Congress at that exact time and, without hesitation used his executive powers as head of State to enforce his influence. The Civil Rights Act was immediately signed by Johnson—directly BECAUSE of the people’s non-violent protest in the racial war that had erupted that moment, right HERE, in my hometown of St. Augustine.

After the documentary was over, and the standing ovation settled down, all my friends and I were moved when Andrew Young, in his closing remarks, praised ALL the people who had been involved in this historic confrontation of good and evil. Even the racist whites, Young said, even the hapless businessman who rushed to pour acid in his swimming pool in a desperate attempt to get protesting blacks and whites out of his strickly segregated motel pool—-ALL players in this heart-rending drama, Young said, should be proclaimed as equally pivotal—equally instrumental—because good or bad, they helped each other to become today’s better, higher versions of themselves, blacks and whites. We ALL end up being better people because of what happened here in 1964, Young reminded us. Andrew Young spoke such compassionate words, ones I’ve only heard in the Bible and other scriptures I study, and when the Dalai Lama said about the Chinese communists who have slaughtered thousands of his fellow Tibetans: I hold no malice to my enemies. We are all in this together.

And….even though my mother has lived here for 30 years, and I’ve been visiting, have had friends here for decades, and am involved with the nature-loving, arts, spiritual, recovery, consciousness-raising and environmental communities here—never have I heard one whisper mentioned among any of my many associates here in this pristine gem of a town, of events that occurred here in the summer of 1964. Yes, even an entire town can keep its secrets close to its heart. But no more! I doubt hardly any person in the audience last night, who hadn’t been directly involved, even knew of the extent of what happened almost 50 years ago, right here, just a few blocks from where we sat watching Young’s documentary.

later, Andrew Young at slain King's casket

The denial of the truth, in order to run a smooth tourist-town, one that functions almost entirely from revenue generated by St. Augustine’s clean, clearly FUN FUN FUN appearance—is now being forced to face the truth of its past.

The Truth shall set us FREE.

It’s always better to be truthful, no matter what our “sin” may be. I don’t like this word, sin. But….some of us are stained with our past actions. And to be free of whatever weighs on us, we must allow our transgressions to come to the surface of our awareness, share them with others, humbly, make amends as best we can, and allow our hearts to soar free as our human experience is meant to be. We are ONE.

our life energies are all connected

in the Light, lordflea

for those of you interested in more information about Andrew Young and his work:

Andrew Young Presents, the syndicated television series launched by former Atlanta Mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young won 2 Emmy’s yesterday at the 2009 Southeast Regional Emmy Awards.  Ambassador Young was also awarded the prestigious Governor’s Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

“In the Civil Rights Movement, it was our ability to package a message to illustrate our cause in a 60 second segment on the evening news that was key to our success.  We could not have been effective without television.” said Ambassador Young accepting the Governor’s Award.

Andrew Young and CB Hackworth won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement: Television Crafts Achievement Excellence- Writer- Program (Non News) for Walking with Guns, featuring Clifford “T.I.” Harris, one of the world’s most popular Hip Hop artists. The film is about the tragedy of gun violence, the hope of redemption, and a famous Hip Hop artist coming to term with his troubled past.

Andrew Young, CB Hackworth, Chris Tucker and Dan McCain won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement: Television Programming Excellence- Magazine Program for Chris Tucker in Africa.

Three years a ago, Ambassador Andrew Young began to create documentaries to share his vision of our possibilities with an international audience. Since then, the Emmy-winning Andrew Young Presents has produced six (6) one hour documentaries that have been syndicated by Sewee Entertainment (see-we) in nearly 100 television markets reaching 80% of all U.S. households. Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Civil Rights and non-violence have been topics of the series.

Andrew Young Presents is a project of the Andrew J. Young Foundation, Inc.  The Andrew Young Foundation works to transform the way we understand our people, our global community and our possibilities.  www.andrewyoung.org  www.andrewyoungpresents.com   www.sewee.net

BUT—this morning at the same 4am. expected window of opportunity, the launch succeeded.  Here are a couple shots sent by our friends Dani and Jens from their iPhone.

hard to keep your eye on the lens...such a spectacle!

endeavor---soon becomes almost invisible as it slips into hole in cloud cover

We counldn’t stay aboard Arwen for the actual launch … but I saw the launch-scene for myself on the “trial test,” the 4am canceled event. I got to feel the thrill, the unprecedented excitement of seeing a twenty-story high rocket launching with humans aboard, and am now a committed NASA junkie groupie wunderkind. More stories about Endeavor and NASA’s outstanding space program in the future!

“This was one of the smoothest countdowns ever,” Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director said. “The team was very, very energized going into the count.”

Endeavor will rush now to link up with the space station. They will dock on day three of flight, install the Tranquility node and then the cupula permanently to the International Space Station. The astronaunts are scheduled to return to Earth in 13 days.

Adventuring in space is surely one of the most significant achievements, one of the greatest glories of being human! Seeing this marvelous sight somehow deflects the pain of all the crap of humankind’s lower tendencies, our “base” natures, the conflict, disrepect, even the long lines and humiliations of security searches due to the modern trend of terrorism, not to mention the age-old human tendency of violent crime and the senseless brutality of war. This enterprise of space travel we humans are capable of is simply mind-blowingly astounding. Seeing this launch renews my trust in the human story. It makes me happy, so happy, to be a member of the human race. There is HOPE! We must focus on the hope, not the despair of our human condition here ….whether on Earth or …. wherever we venture.

As my friend Dani tells it, “The shuttle lit up the entire sky….it made everything ENLIGHTENED!”

in the LIGHT of all your inner travels, as well as the magnificence of space travel,

your pal lordflea sends warm waves of love to each of you

where it all began ...

i first went to costa rica four years ago, and took with me my first digital camera and the above notebook. Once there, I decided to do what I’d been told to do in a dream years before—to draw very small. In fact, my dream had shown me to make “stamp-size” paintings…but i decided that would be too difficult. And hence began my journey into miniature black and whites, which i’ve been sharing on lordflea sings for the last year and a half.

giant horsetail

my eyes became a microscope. i drew up closely to look more preciously, at every aspect of nature, of my companions, of the world around me. AND … this is what I usually saw:

the wonder within

i spoke to a woman, a stranger to me, yesterday and she visited my blog. she thinks i shouldn’t be anonymous. she thinks my readers need to know who i am, in order to relate to me as a person….not just the ideas and the art that i set forth in lordflea sings. i thought i’d put it out to you, who visit here, about this.

Question: do you think lordflea needs to be a “real” person, with a “photo” and an “identity” other than what I’ve been putting out to you? Also, she think I write too much. I agree. I’m going to make my posts shorter from now on. I promise. But i have so much to share with you!!! oh well, i’ll just have to blog more often. please leave a comment and tell me if you want me to “come out.” If i hear enough “yes” replies….I’ll seriously consider it.

in the Light, lordflea

a quiet moment to speak from my heart to you

i am on the last leg of my journey to costa rica, and am presently staying with our good friend, the mystical landscape painter tomas sanchez. using his computer is the first opportunity i;ve had to quietly and … peacefully share what;s been going on with lordflea. please excuse the peculiar typos, as i;m using a spanish keyboard with small  differences (i wonder where the question mark is, sorry, can;t find it¡).

a little taste of love ... from another place altogether

because i;m not at my own computer i can;t give you any of the photos or drawings i usually embellish my sharings with. but the above are borrowed. the first is from the photo collection of tomas, a tiny detail of one of his meditation-on-nature paintings, which no doubt you;ve seen in previous lordflea;s posts if you;ve been following my writings. and the second was just sent to me from elsbeth, my good friend who lives in the wild, the most third-world of the Caribbean (next to poor Haiti) island-country of dominica, in the west idies. she thought it was funny that she ran into this portable kitchen, completely unexpected, and totally transportable, as she traveled on a dusty unpave back road of dominica, where she lives. many years ago i also lived there. elsbeth thought this T Lord;s Kitchen bus was a fitting tribute to my spirit which still hovers around the verdant green hillsides of that lush island, nestled in between guadeloupe and martinique, smack dab in the middle of the antillean chain of tiny islands. i;ve not written a thing about the tragic earthquake in Haiti, dear readers, because it happened just when my travels began but i will talk about this later, believe me. something of such impact cannot be overlooked. it affects us all. when one part of Mother EArth suffers, as Haiti and her citizens do, we all are deeply touched. Just as the tectonic plates all touch and rub up each other, and one moving here affects another on the compelte opposite side of the globe, so too does one tragedy affect all of us on Gaia, our earthly home.

but here and now, i am in costa rica. this country is like dominica in that it is filled with mountainous terrain and is surrounded by water water everywhere. in Costa Rica you see a waterfall everywhere you turn. On one side of the coast is the pacific, while on the other is the Caribbean. My consort carter and i love this place. We have not been here for several years, so it was a delight to reconnect with all of costa rica;s many variations of climate and terrain, to join hands with all her smiling children, the ticos. The people here are soon going to the polls and expect to vote in the first female president of Costa Rica, Laura, currently the vicepresident under Oscar Arias, the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize some years back for his work in democratizing latin america.  we have been spending most of our time in the hot humid jungle hillsides of the southern central area around San Isidro de General (Perez), where we climb rocky cliffs and listen to the sounds of the congo monkeys as they swiftly travel among the treetops. i have gotten quite superb in imitating their primordial call. the first time i heard the congo call, i was reminded of the unrecogonizable sound that dinosaurs must have made, thousands of years ago, and how freaked any human would be to hear such a thing–today¡ So you can imagine how delighted i was when I found out that this sound came from the deep throated, big-mouthed howlers, who are never a threat but always a constant reminder that there ARE places on this good magnificent earth where we can still be One with Nature.

Next time I write i will continue my story of travels in costa rica, and any other thoughts that pass through this wide-opened mind i have been blessed with.

Last night was the first time we;ve seen television in weeks. we turned it on—and there was Obama giving a speech, i guess the state of the union, although i;m not sure. hope he;s doing okay, i pray for all our world leaders to not mess us up too badly. is that a futile prayer (question mark). I think not. If all of us sent our thought-seeds, our carefully directed mind-energies, to creating harmony, and stopped with the endless conflictual discussions–i think this world would be a better and more safe place in which to fulfill all our destinies.

sending you lots of love and friendly embraces, i am lordflea singing the song of Oneness—for all of us¡