What do you Love? Me — Global Transformation!

For those of you who regularly visit my blog you’ve probably noticed I’ve been MIA for the past month or more. This is because of the choice I had to make about getting my book ready for publication instead of my usual spew of social media-ing, blogging, even hanging with friends. I do keep up my yoga and Spanish practice, however, and I do cook fabulous food for my consort Carter. We all must make choices. My post today is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-published book, which is now in another phase of being re-born, once again (like us, too!). Today I’m calling it “Rio Blisso” but you may know it from its former name “Global Bliss NOW.” Stay tuned for more excerpts and other juicy tidbits about la vie de teZ (Lordflea is me, teZa Lord, no longer anonymous!). Here’s a visual treat for you for starters, darlin’s, my 94-year old Mom who insisted I take her to Iceland last summer, as she inspects the myriad drying cod for dried fish called Bakaloa (salted cod) that’s used throughout the world. Yum.  And then the book’s tasty treat. Have a glorious day, my friends. Rainy nor’ester here in northern Florida.

mom Eve in Iceland grovin' on the Bakaloa

Rio Blisso: Reflections Along the Journey of Discovering Self by Nurturing Others

Our world is in immediate need of more than a major facelift. We need a complete overhaul, a consciousness-transfusion: this is global transformation. Who wouldn’t want to be part of this historic portal opening, resulting in the shift, the elevation of thinking that is leading all of humanity into the next, more expanded plateau of civilization’s understanding? All of us want to thrive in peace. All of us want to use our energies for something more constructive than dominance and warfare. All of us can enter the gateway of transformation by leading spiritually attuned lives—and guard our every thought.

Staying focused on positives is a challenge in today’s turmoil. The test of our belief in the incredible transformative power of the collective-human-mind is to believe and remain focused on positive things in the midst of such cruel soul-quakes.

The remedy?

Take action.

Choose not to see another degenerate film on any screen, or support in any other way, the commercialization of tragedy for “entertainment’s sake.”

After murdering both his parents a fourteen-year-old was asked why he did it. “Mom told me,” he wailed to court officials, “to stop watching those kinds of movies, ones that made me think about killing people all the time.”

Films, books, and any art form that depicts gore for sensationalistic effect, only trivialize the uplifting of the human spirit. These kinds of expression do not represent freedom of speech but erode the very soul of our culture. Unnecessary violence in the media doesn’t deserve my support or yours. Art’s original purpose was for celebrating the human soul’s magnificence, not causing its demise. Calling “art” anything that hurts humankind’s honoring of all life not only jeopardizes our future, but it’s a sham. That type of “free expression” can only be classified as malice for the sake of reaping the almighty buck. The only thing it adds to the world is bulking up certain fat pockets.

People love to laugh, and laughter is a healing balm. Comedians are better message-bearers than über-serioso types. Each of us in the Army of Love can sow smiles and laughter while educating any who remain bogged down in the quagmire of misinformation about our world’s need to change.

Be a spiritual activist and realize your Spiritual Correctness (SC) duty is to spread love and forgiveness through compassion. Surely, creative people can use their talents to heighten our awareness, not cast a toxic pall over it. Cast your vote at the real-or-virtual cash register. Stand up and shout and make Loving Compassion go viral!

If we hold these kinds of constructive choices in mind, and voice them whenever and however we can, our thought-seeds (ideas) will manifest (actions) in real life.

Approach your life like the prayer it is.

Think positive thoughts.

And spread the word.

Sometimes you just have to make a STAND

After the events last week in Tucson, Arizona, I simply have to say something. Usually I try not to bring politics into what i share here, on Lordflea Sings. Usually, I put the focus on us leading spiritual lives, not political ones. But enough is enough! I simply must say something, because when the sentiments of a country get so fomented, to take no position is simply that of a wimp. And I’m no wimp.

I am Civitas, a modern deva of civilization

I am Civitas, a modern deva of civilization

I guess it was meant to be that I was asked to pose for this statue, which now stands at an industrial crossroads in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Named “Civitas” by its artist, Audrey Flack, there are certain responsibilities that come with the sense of having an effect on others, and that is one of the main purposes of a deity, whether it be of a fairytale-nature or from one’s artistic viewpoint, like this statue is. As “Civitas,” my alter-ego, I wish to speak frankly about the dangers of making politics one’s religion.

I know people who judge life by not just their politics, but others’ as well. I know people who have judged me (incorrectly) thinking they know me because they might know a certain fact about my political sentiments. But, in truth, no one can know another, not the real person that the other is, by looking at one’s politics. Life is complicated, and there are so many aspects to one’s relationship to living, that labels and thinking associated with political branding simply is a superficial manner in which to view others. And the only result of this type of divisive-thinking is what’s happening here in America: political craziness. People getting pissed off. People taking up arms. people shooting other people. We must STOP! this tendency. So here and now I am finally stating my political manifesto:

There is a much deeper meaning to life than what appears on the surface. Poltics is superficial. Economics is superficial. Everything about the material life is transitory and in the end, insignificant. I have personally felt (and now foster through prayer and meditation) the depths of life’s meaning and therefore I know this to be true: Politics is the means to the end (peaceful and humanitarian governance), NOT the end itself.

getting closer to the truth

getting closer to the truth

For years I ran from any public conversation that had to do with politics. Or sex, or God, for that matter. These three things–sex, God, and politics–I still refuse to discuss with any but my closest friends. I daren’t go there even with my family. And to tell the truth, with some of my friends, I’ve come to realize I have to skirt everywhere but dead-on when it comes to discussing politics. Why? Because some people can’t stand to associate with others who hold opinions other than theirs. It’s that plain. I prefer to mingle with folks who don’t hold any solid opinions or judgments in their minds when they speak, or act, especially directly with me. Yet hold true to the one thing no one can deny—the Mystery of life. Native Americans call this Mystery, “Great Spirit.” So do I. My friends tend to be open-minded, forgiving, and see life creatively, rather than from an implacable, black-and-white point of view.

When Bush was in power I cringed to hear the Bush-bashers. I guess everyone thought I’d just love to join them, that I was an uber-liberal, because wherever I went, two years ago and the previous 8 before that, people would delight in putting down the President of the US and think I would, too, thinking nothing of calling him every insulting name. And now, guess what? The same is happening for our present leader, President Obama. Right wingers and conservatives everywhere I go assume I’m one of them and admonish the administration right in front of me as if they knew, and never even suspected otherwise, that I would love to join in their Obama-bashing.

Where do people get off thinking that everyone has hatred in their hearts?

I’m reading the current story in this week’s New Yorker magazine about Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, one of my heroes, who in December was finally released after two decades of political imprisonment. What did she do to keep from going insane all those years of the military regime’s unjustness toward her and her democracy-prone allies? She meditated. She didn’t sit in a bath of heart-acid thinking how evil so-and-so was, thinking of those bastards she was going to get as soon as she could. NO! Because if she had, she probably would have already died of heart disease, cancer, or some such physical wrath that negativity takes upon the physical body. Her battle was and IS one of the spirit, and yes, she uses politics, as I do, as a weapon of spiritual transformation. that’s my political affiliation: the “In Spirit” party. As more and more of us are living our lives are also deciding to become members of this enlightened nonpartisan political party. The spiritual battle is the only battle worth fighting, the only battle worth losing one’s life over. And that is what I am: a spiritual warrior.

the birth of a spiritual warrior, ready to take up the arms of inner peace

the birth of a spiritual warrior, ready to take up the arms of inner peace

This is the first time I’ve come right out and announced to the world, here on my blog, where for two years I’ve been anonymously trying to make a difference and help people relate to the world on a spiritual plane, rather than just seeing what’s going on through the physical, mental, political, economic, and human lens. A somewhat limited perspective, if you ask me.

let's ex-----pand our thinking

let's ex-----pand our thinking

So now the gig is up! Now I’m not anonymous anymore. You can see for yourself who and what I am. I’m proud to fight the battle for Universal Peace in the name of Spirit. I’m proud to be a warrior defending The Mystery, a spiritual warrior who wears the cap of lieutenant in the Army of Love! Won’t you join me?

Lieutenant Lord Flea of the Army of Love

Lieutenant Lord Flea of the Army of Love

So now that the secret is out — will it change things for me, as a person, as an artist and writer, as a spiritual blogger? I doubt it. Will it incite people to tune into what’s going on, on a spiritual level rather than rant and rave about partisanship being the worse it’s ever been, and one side blaming the other, and feel impotent listening to people saying how crazy things are in America these days? Will it change any of that? I doubt it. So why bother coming out of the closet?

it's time to change, and help make a difference

it's time to change, and help make a difference

These times they are a-changing.

More and more of us believe that the spiritualization of humankind is our only salvation.

I am here to proclaim that fact loud and clear, from the highest mountain, from the widest megaphone I can get my hands on. Many are already aligned with this thinking: that this is a spiritual life we humans are leading, NOT a political or a solely material one. When 2012 comes around there has been predicted (by many ancient sources, not me!) that 112,000 “Awakened Sundancers” … that is, open-minded, open-hearted individuals … will be already aware and have already embraced this thinking. THAT’s what 2012 is really about. And what happens next? The rest of humankind will become spiritualized by the sheer number of us radicalizing (in a spiritual manner, that is) all aspects of society: the arts, social sciences, religious beliefs, and yes, even a few enlightened politicians (you go big-O!).

won’t you join us? Open your minds. Open your hearts. Let love and Light enter the cave of your heart, replacing fear and uncertainty. You will have a much better time of life when you do. Start praying and meditating about thinking about world peace. Your thoughts are seeds. The beginning of change is how we think. Please start changing your thinking to more positive ways, and our reality will follow our thoughts. Stop promoting divisiveness by talking about it. Just talk about how we are changing everything to the better, one thought at a time, one person at a time. And everything—-will change! Believe me. It’s that simple.

Break the ice away from your frozen hearts. Dive into the waters of Peace, of fulfillment.

Thank you!

 

the unified waterfall of humankind
the unified waterfall of humankind

Divisiveness harms

Think: We Are One

Join the Army of Love

in Light and Love, your pal Lordflea

a slice of stewardship

dear friend,

 here is an excerpt from “More Than Dust,” the book i’m writing. enjoy!

brunfelsia, "yesterday, today, and tomorrow"

brunfelsia, "yesterday, today, and tomorrow"

 

Timote and I traveled to Jamaica, our trip funded by a grant to discover a feared-extinct medicinal plant that researchers desperately needed, for a possible cancer-killing alkaloid they’d isolated from an old specimen, in a lab. Tim and I arrived in the blue-green island and drove to a mountainous region, a tiny hamlet called Bamboo. From there we made day trips all over the region, scouring the land around the site of the last known sighting of Brunfelsia Americana. In the 40s specimens had been collected from there, and none from any other location on earth ever since. Because of botanical information-gathering sources, called herbariums, dried and pickled specimens of every plant gathered by botanists are available for research, and that is how the cancer-experts discovered a near-magical ingredient found only in this particular species, that Tim and I were now hunting for.

Brunfelsia americana...the near-extinct species

Brunfelsia americana...the near-extinct species

Extreme strip mining, for the mineral bauxite, had changed the lay of the land in that part of Jamaica, drastically affecting the natural plantings. Still, Timote was not discouraged, because as we talked to native people we found that some old-timers remembered seeing the plant, called by various local, patois names. After a week of bush whacking our way through one red-herring lead after the next, we climbed an isolated plateau of land we were directed to, in a hidden valley, of sorts, a place where one small bit of land rose above the desolation below like a living altar, which had miraculously survived decades of destructive bulldozing by bauxite miners. We were elated to find one lone stand of this rare species of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, brunfelsia’s common name, and even more thrilled to find seeds and seedlings among the shriveled, deformed, last remaining group, anywhere, of this precious plant.

Live and love and laugh a lot, today and everyday,

we are All One on planet Earth

moon flower: plants, minerals, humanity: we are All One on planet Earth

your pal, lordflea