Life is “to make Wonderful, Wherever”

So many incredible things are happening in my life right at this moment. As I look at the date of my last post, I can’t believe how much has occurred in just a short month. Most importantly, our family celebrated the beautiful wedding of our son, Cully and his lovely bride, Katie. My consort Carter was asked by the couple to be the officiant of their special union, and so it was especially intimate, with Cully’s dad being the celebrant. I can see why Cully and Katie wanted Carter, and no one else. Carter, my husband of almost 3 decades, has the biggest heart of any person alive, and his son, Cully, takes after his father’s loving, compassionate spirit as much as his daughter, Fonya, has Carter’s lovingness embedded in her as well.

I could go on and on about the wedding, but … there’s too much other news to share, and my time is limited. Why? Because as I type, outside in the driveway sits “Duke,” the red Chevy Tahoe that will be home base for Carter and me for the next many months. Yes, we’re hitting the road! Cully’s wedding was the target of our take-off date, and now we’ve done all we need to do, and are taking off first thing tomorrow morning. Soon as Carter visits the Motor Vehicle Office and registers the car for this next year, something that slipped his mind, or … more likely … the email or letter with the due date got lost in the mad shuffle leading up to the wedding.

So many preparations for not only a big event like a wedding! And now, also, a car-camping trip, complete with containers for tent, sleep-gear, cooking, clothes, etc. etc. Not to mention the yoga mats, and next manuscript I’m bringing, as I’ll be final-editing the next book I’m readying for publication.

Which brings me to another subject entirely.

The ZLORD Podcast! It’s here! It’s up! It’s public! It’s a reality! It’s the way I’ll be sharing what’s up with a lot of folks who like to listen to podcasts. And for you who like to read Lord Flea, which is how I’ve been publicly sharing for the last ten years, I plan on continuing the occasional posts. Usually I’m good for at least a monthly post, so I’ll try to stick to that. But for those of you who want to tune into the audial-only podcast. Here’s a link to the ZLORD Podcast, and I’ll try to put up a link on the sidebar, for those of you using computers. More learning! Each and every one of us has to learn new things everyday in order to keep abreast and aligned with what’s happening in the world around us. Here’s the podcast’s logo, designed by moi and photo-shopped by my good pal, Kathryn Arango.

thicker outline 300 jpeg

Hmmmm. For a person who’s not very techie, I’d say I’ve done a pretty adequate job of learning all I have HAD TO, in this effort of spreading the word of the books I publish. Sometimes my brain feels like it’s about to burst, because I really like to stay in the right-brain creative mode, yet techie-learning forces me to be wholly and fully in the left brain logical train of thought. It’s tiring. But I persevere. Kudos to my IT guru, Cody Bennett, who has saved my butt many a time in the recent years. Without help from our friends, where would we all be?

And last on this wonderfulness I’m spreading today, here on my spiritual blog, I want to announce that my third book is presently readying to be launched! It’s a nonfiction narrative about the waking-up to higher consciousness that happened to me, personally (not a how-to book, don’t worry!); with a sub-story of how I “see” that my humanness relates to many other animals’ traits. Each chapter looks at how different animals’ qualities are part of each and every one of our own abilities, if we but only choose to be aware of this. Our animalness is the general theme of this next book. I’ll tell you more about the illustrated book, its title, hints of the story line, and how you can find it in the weeks to come. As soon as it’s ready to go public.

Meanwhile, I send you all many blessings for all your endeavors. I hope you enjoy good health and choose to have peace within, no matter what’s happening all around you.

All love, Lord Flea, aka your pal teZa Lord

Don’t forget to join my “Army of Love” if you haven’t! Visit my website: tezalord.com and leave me your email so you can receive updates about what I’m up to.

TRUST … no matter what!

see her? you think you're overwhelmed!

no matter what BIG upset comes along — Trust and you won’t suffer!

One of my most respected spiritual teachers said the other day, “Everything that’s happening right here, right now, is the accumulation of every single choice made up to this point —in your personal life and out in the world around us. Trust that this present moment is happening for all the right reasons. You may not know what those reasons are … yet! … but in time, more shall be revealed. Trust is what a child first learns from good parentage and upbringing. If you don’t have it, look back and fill in the cracks. Repair your trust leaks.”Because I want to have a pure approach to Trust, at this moment I’m going to (for the first time here on Lord Flea!) “tune “out” of my ordinary, rational mind … and go within. To that still, deep place within … where I connect with my inner Self. Because I want “him” (I call my special Spirit Guide Noname — and yes long ago “he” told me that’s his name, so yeah laugh if you want because I, LordFlea — am female!) and I want Noname to speak about this, not me. I invite Noname, whom I have been contacting for special messages, to talk today, and not me, about this pivotal topic: Trust.

The way I connect (and you can, too) is to get quiet, breathe deeply, and ask Noname to “take over” … and then I simply (after having trained myself to) trust what comes out … as I sit at my keyboard (I type as fast as I think, as swiftly as the flow of receiving is). I’ve been doing this exercise — tapping Noname’s wisdom — for years. So … here we go! Allow me to introduce you to our guest blogger today, my very own spirit guide … Noname!

flies-at-beach

relax, listen, here’s what Noname has to say!

Noname says:

Without trust, life on earth is miserable, at best; and bearable, at most. Those aren’t such great choices, are they?

If a person can let go of their pre-determined ideas about how things should be: their worry, fears, apprehensions, expectations — they have a chance of experiencing the real prize of being born a human — and that is:

to marry the mind with the soul.

In other words, when a grown person brings issues leftover from, say, their childhood, or even another lifetime, into their present, they will never experience the full glory of each moment’s possibility. That’s the only sure thing: that without trust, the present moment will forever be tainted, judged, or compared to others. And that’s no fun.

For instance, when people are young they live in the flow of life, experiencing each moment as it arises, fully, completely, without Yeses or Nos. Kids relate through the filters of their immediate surroundings, their parents, their caregivers, what they are taught and demonstrated from the earliest possible moment of life. All humans arrive at adolescence, and probably way before that, as early as four years of age, with already set parameters cemented into their little psyches by their parents, their culture, their religion or lack thereof, their influences from all around them.

For an awakened person, which I’m sure all of you are who choose to read this, wanting to experience the heights of your humanhood — it is crucial to be conscious of every bit of judging/setness/childhood impressions leftover in your beingness … and get ready to eradicate any source of unsettledness. Bit by bit. Judgement by judgement. Because anything that stops you from experiencing the present moment is holding you back. From what?

From being One with All.

That’s the payoff, the grand slam prize, of being able to Trust.

It’s not some momentary relief. It’s not some jovial haha I’ve “got it!” … No! I’m here to tell you that Trust is the key that fits nicely into the lock that allows all living creatures to experience the fullest of their existence. And for humans, that’s to truly know the state of consciousness some call God-within, others call Cosmic consciousness. Some just call inner peace and calm.

A happy life. Who doesn’t want that?

But without trust, and recognizing how not being able to trust pops up in myriads of ways … this creates the iron bars of a person’s spiritual prison.

So now that we’ve defined what it is, this mistrust that keeps us from ever experiencing true happiness as a human being — what can we do to achieve Trust?

The answer is simpler than one might expect. It starts with that famous saying that makes me smile whenever I hear it … “If you spot it, you got it!”

That means that if you sense an unease within yourself, whatever or however it arises, from whichever source imaginable, that’s your particular distrust of being alive. It may be about the present administration (so many mistrust the new Pres, I know I know, but bear with me here), or it may be as simple as not trusting you can do a simple back-bend, or a headstand in a yoga practice, afraid you’re going to hurt yourself, and not trusting a teacher who tells you — you won’t.

Whenever you feel the uneasiness of being out of sorts, uncomfortable, not able to breathe easily, a kicking, unsettled sensation in the gut, a wanting to shout NO! to something you hear or see … or feel suspicion that people are doing something behind your back, your girlfriend looking at that guy because she likes him better than you, or you think a spider will lurch out of that dark closet and bite you, inflicting woe and misery on your life forever — stop and ask yourself:

“Am I bringing my mind’s mistrust into this situation? Or … should I just stop a moment and practice discernment, and weigh whatever’s making me uncomfortable?”

Let’s take the first situation: the one of mistrusting the present administration. Lots of Americans feel their neck hairs raise on this one. But ask yourself, “Have I given Trump a chance? Have I reached beyond my disappointments and anger, put aside my honest belief that he’s ruining all our lives — to ask myself: Am I willing to trust that maybe, just maybe, the Universe allowed this person to become President of the United States for a purpose that little ol’ me just can’t fathom?” Have you taken the time to ask yourself this question? Well, this is a good place to start.

Things are never what they appear to be.

getting lost along The Way

sometimes the Lighthouse is a pile of rocks!

Let’s look at the scenario of the young hunk sitting at a table watching his beautiful new girlfriend glance around the room. And the hunk says to himself, “What! She’s looking at that guy over there, and thinking she wants to be with him more than me! How dare she! She’s just like Suzybelle, my last girlfriend, who did the same damn thing to me. Suzy ruined my life! So I’m outta here, NOW!”

Only to find out — many long hours of back-and-forthing, endless texts, beggings, pleadings on the behalf of the girlfriend who swears she was just innocently “looking around the room” — that she hadn’t even one person in her eye’s focus in the restaurant, and that whatever Mr. hunk was imagining, came from within himself, not from what was really happening. Hunk judged beauty’s actions based on his own fears, not on what she was actually doing. And when hunk “saw” her looking with desire at another guy across the room and accused her of being unfaithful (already!) this only made beauty afraid to go any further with hunk (who was perfect in every other respect) — because he exhibited the killer of all great loves — jealousy.

Maybe the two situations seem unrelated to you, but really, they are the same. A person objecting to Trump before letting him have a chance to be a president, and hunk assuming beauty to be the same fickle bitch Suzy was. The sour-grapes political disser and the sure-of-himself jealous boyfriend: both make judgements based on their past experiences, not on what’s happening right there, right then, in the present moment before them.

With the hunk/beauty situation, they spoke their peace, they decided to practice trusting each other. Their immediate attraction to each other was strong enough, special enough for each to weigh the pros and cons of continuing their newly formed bond … and they mutually decided to work on their “issues.” The hunk claims he wants to let go of jealousy, and is willing to admit that it’s his baggage that caused the scene in the restaurant, not beauty’s wandering eye. Hunk wants to grow. He wants to be trustful. He doesn’t want to be like his parents (ahhh, herein lies his misfitting key) who are experiencing marital problems after thirty some years together.

The hunk is now in a place where he wants to see with his own eyes, hear with his own heart. He feels his spirit drawn to this woman who sits before him. To move forward though, he has to let go of his fears. He knows he must learn to trust. Especially her. But of course once mistrust has been spotted somewhere in a person’s life, it’s usually spread all over the spectrum, like veins going deep inside a hunk of blue cheese.

But the good news is … once a person learns to “spot it” … if they want to be happy people, they certainly are also ready now to admit they “got it.” And once this recognition occurs,  called “Awareness” … a person then reaches the threshold of being able to choose.

If we want to be happy, we must be willing to let go of fear and choose to let goodness into our lives. We must be willing to replace mistrust with trust.

How?

Ahhh, here comes the leap of faith stuff we keep hearing about.

earth energy with yo#19151E

one by one, we need to take that Leap!

Pretend you’re at the edge of a very high, very dangerous cliff, and behind you there’s a stampeding herd of demons spread out in all directions — coming straight for you! There’s no escape! You will die if you don’t do something quick. The angry, vicious monsters (mistrust, judgement, fear of all sorts) are closing in on you. You can see the mob, huffing and puffing fire and murderous intent streams from their flared nostrils. You can see them tightly packed as they rampage right toward you, their hoofs pounding the ground making the earth shake beneath your feet, now just thirty yards away! You have only a few seconds to decide what to do before you die! You glance down. There’s nothing but a canyon far far below you. But … you have come to believe in the Spirit, the eternal Spirit of your humanness, and this is your saving grace. In fact, you have even had glimpses of yourself, before this moment, when you knew you were something more than a mere blood and guts human. Before, in more quiet moments, you remembered. So now you flash-recall that memory! Now you have to choose! Stay stuck and die by fear-raging monsters who’ll destroy you — or — leap off the cliff and spread those spiritual wings of your Higher Self that you’ve suspected yourself having … since first sensing them in early childhood.

If you’re smart you’ll leap. If you’re not, you’ll die. Of course you’re smart! Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this!

Congratulate yourself! You’ve just taken that leap of faith you need to let go of everything holding you back, destroying your chance at real happiness.

Now … as you jump from the cliff the monsters are far behind you. You look upward, spread those wings of freedom (metaphor here, dear ones) and fly high. Higher than you’ve ever been. You certainly may come back to earth whenever you need to. But once you’ve experienced this release of unfounded fear — you’re truly free!

I hope you get an opportunity to have this leap of faith very soon.

Noname over and out.

***

And also me, your loving pal, Lordflea, aka teZa Lord

Please, if you like what I offer, please send me a note and let me add you to my email list of upcoming posts and NOW — books! I’m publishing books! Wheeeee! I’m spreading my wings, like you, too.

What daVinci and LordFlea have in Common

the Feminine Healing Power

the Feminine Healing Power of Shakti

I drew this image several years ago, inspired, of course, by Leonardo daVinci’s famous Vitruvian Man, executed in 1492. Can you see the obvious differences and similarities?

 

leo's famous guy

leo’s famous guy

My drawing is, most evidently, a woman and Leonardo’s is a man.

Mine is filled with objects of nature (plants, animals, forms and squiggles) while Leo’s is a study of simplicity, design, and sacred geometry. Lordflea’s Shakti-woman has 11 chakras, centers of spiritual energy, while Leo’s defining fulcrum of power, from my visual evaluation at least, is from the figure’s naval, his so-called solar plexus area, that spot from which he entered his human existence. Leo’s figure is devoid of any other detracting symbolism, such as the emanating, profuse natural growth of organisms I surround my female with. My woman’s glance is downward (humility) and inward (reflective) whereas Leo’s is forthrightly outward (aggressive) and in-your-face (proud and sure).

When I did this drawing I was thinking, I suppose, as all artist do, about what I was feeling. As if I were the model I was drawing I’d suppose you’d say. Of course this is NOT a self-portrait, but … why not think of how we feel as how we truly are, rather than how we look?

Because yes, I do feel that the female energy (which is my birthright, this time around) is the most healing, the most naturally-inclined to compassion, the most nurturing. and therefore, the most likely (out of the male population) to be heading the phase of enlightenment that now beckons all of us on planet Earth.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinion. Thanks for joining my thinking about this one.

In Spirit, with much love, your pal

LordFlea

 

 

Learning to Live Spiritually from Nature

We are One with All

We are One with All

In many cultures the belief is firmly established (recorded first by ancient Eastern mystics in 1000-400 BCE yogic scriptures: the Vedas, the Upanishads; as well as core to the oral tradition of Native American beliefs and other indigenous People throughout the world) that all things in existence—everything, without exception—are Interconnected.

The brain cancer my friend has is no “accident.” No dis-ease, any good or bad occurrence for that matter, is an accident, but rather the direct response, or consequence, of invisible forces at work. In the case of cancer it could be defective, inherited genes, or—as I suspect is true in my friend’s use of the toxic process she unwisely chose to make her astounding woven copper sculpture—the horrific results of one’s own actions. Or another’s action, or lack of, upon us. Certainly we all know stories of how people fall deathly ill from society’s lack: Chernobyl, for instance; Love Canal, another; the list goes on sadly, ad infinitum.

We do have the ability to reverse ill effects inherited from defective genes as well as we can choose to be smart, and more aware of how to take precautions about the ills spuming from our toxic world. The Wise Ones have always shown us how we can burn off bad karma by doing good deeds (performing tapasya, as described in yogic scriptures) or making amends. However, the process must begin with awareness. Nothing changes unless we, each one of us, decides to Wake Up!

In other words, we can transform bad things into being catalysts for good things by awakening to a higher understanding, by committing to acting more consciously, more aware, instead of closing our minds and our hearts to life’s infinite possibilities all around us.

Only when we’re closed to the possibilities of change do we succumb to negative forces like fear, depression, dis-ease, anger, judgment, and other distraught, nonproductive states.

Whether my friend Maya will be able to overcome the challenge of her terminally diagnosed illness or not, remains to be seen. Many of us working with the concept of choosing to perceive life as a spiritual journey, not just a worldly, physical and intellectual one, we firmly believe in the impossible happening: miracles if you will, happen in even the most dire of circumstances. Wouldn’t you want to believe in a miracle, if faced with the terminal diagnosis Maya does?

What has already been done can be used to create new and better possibilities. We can choose to work hard to balance negatives with positives. Look to Nature as proof positive of how perfectly the world mirrors the cause and effect of positive versus negative actions. Tsunamis and earthquakes kill and plunder, yet they create space for renewal and regeneration in every instance. The evolution of the world’s countless species, scientists tell us, happens by adapting to conditions that are harsh, deadly, toxic. Without change, everything faces extinction, even hope.

Nothing ends. Everything keeps evolving, recycling, metamorphing.

Nature balances Herself. This occurs time and again. Storms. Droughts, Floods. Wild Fires. Ice Ages. Plagues. Species’ Extinction or Evolution. All these headline events are completely natural happenings of Nature’s cyclic patterns. Spurts of growth, overpopulation, human-produced pollution—similar age-old, manmade patterns that result in equally devastating cycles that mirror Nature’s own.

Cycles of life are constantly in motion. Birth, Life on Earth, Death. The part in between Death-and-Life we don’t know too much about—yet. Even if you believe in an afterlife, whether you trust or fear you’re heading for heaven or hell, these concepts I share here will greatly enhance your current happiness factor in spite of, or in addition to, your preferred beliefs. Religion is not being discussed here; spiritualizing the planet is. It’s that simple.

What I wish to share is offered as a proven, tested belief system. All ideas I write about are supported by personal experiences, both mine and others beside me, who help to light the path-of-the-seeker. Many of us choose to set out on our own personal quests to answer life’s big questions. I believe life is filled with magical, mysterious happenings—right here on Earth, in this country, this town, this street, this house where I live, at this desk from where I’m writing. I believe in unlimited possibilities starting with wherever we are, right now.

While reading these words, please try to approach these concepts from another angle than you ordinarily allow your beliefs to roam. Why not? What have you got to lose by trying on some new way of thinking? It’s as easy as experimenting with a new style of clothing that just might spark up your self-image and bring heretofore unknown joy to your life.

the flip side of Taking Action outwardly: Going Within, Waking Up!

the flip side of Taking Action outwardly: Going Within, Waking Up!

(this is the 2nd installment of a continuous series “Maya’s Book of Change” that begins with July 7, ’11 post “As We Think … So We Are”)

following your passion … whichever way the wind blows ya

hello friend,

i’ve been sailing and motoring the inways, byways and channels around st. augustine this week!  in between nursing others in my family, and attending to bizness as usual, i had to do something to blow out the steam, and … sailing, being on the water, is one of my passions, as well as laughing, dancing, being with great groovy people, traveling, learning new things, writing stories and making art. whew! so many passions.

st. augustine lighthouse seen from the Ace Lady, a friend's sailboat

st. augustine lighthouse seen from sailboat Ace Lady

my passions are many.  some have more.  some…only politics, it seems these days.  whatever yours are, i hope you enjoy pursuing them.  and if you haven’t, or haven’t made time to pursue them, i urge you to do that … like now!

take the owner of Ace Lady, for instance:

Captain Priscilla of Ace Lady at the helm

Captain Priscilla of Ace Lady at the helm

Priscilla is a single woman, an expert solo sailor, self confident and extremely capable, who is following her dream.  priscilla puts everything she has into making sure that dream of hers comes true: owning and operating a sturdy, ocean-going sailboat.  it’s not easy, what priscilla is doing, because the maintenance alone (not to mention the sailing) of such a vessel is … well, beyond comprehension to most landlubbers, such as we.  but priscilla finds the time (in between a successful massage therapy business) to maintain her boat, sail it near and far, chartering it out as much as possible (see www.aceladysails.com for more info).  i greatly admire people like priscilla.  they defy the odds, and make sure their dreams become reality.  bravo priscilla!!

this anchored boat, with its mast under repair, represents another sailor’s passion: as demonstrated by the bedazzling woodworking you see everywhere onboard, representing hundreds of hours of labor-intensive savvy!

every scrap of wood is passionately cared for

every scrap of wood is passionately cared for

even this boat owner’s dingys are exquisitely varnished.  he was down below, no doubt, sanding or applying his loving craft to another woody surface, whistling, happy.  following his passion.

and you?  what’s your passion?  are you at least thinking of how you’ll be able to honor that passion today?  even if, like myself, some days you just can’t.  but no matter how stresed or strained we are, at least we can plan on how our passions will evolve some other day, if we’re busy with other things.  because, as we all know, the unfolding of our realities all start with the thoughts we hold continuously in our minds.

as for my passions:  this week i’ve had to put my love (honestly, it’s an out-and-out obsession) of writing and arting to one side to make space to care-take my mom (still recovering from her T.I.A.), and also husband Carter, who didn’t do what i did when i felt “the bug” invade my body last week (we both got it).  i rested, he didn’t.  i’m not as sick, he’s dog-dead-in-the-ditch sick.  i chose to not do as much and he’s paying the price, poor baby (guys! what is it about guys?!).  for a few days i had to put my passions on hold, to heal myself.  and here i am now, nurse lordflea, nursing others, making sure mom takes her meds; making chamomile tea with honey and lemon in the middle of the night for carter, and yesterday,  a big pot of chicken soup bubbling on the stove, with lots of homeopathic remedies at the bedside of the sick co-captain of our ship, called relation.  for the moment at least, my passion for arting (which most definitely includes writing) is put aside for the good of the bigger picture.

but…my passion of being one with the Divine…is never put on hold.  THAT i can do, whether i’m busy, sick, traveling, or involved with others’ passions, projects, or peculiar personalities:

Sufi Bird...flying as high as he can, as i try

Sufi Bird...flying as high as he can, as i try

here’s another shot of the gorgeous st. augustine lighthouse, which has always been one of my passions in life, and also, in my art:

the lighthouse, in reality

the lighthouse, in reality

and here you can see how my passion evokes another way of “seeing” st. augustine’s lighthouse:

Buddha's Foot; from the lighthouse series

Buddha's Foot, from the lighthouse series

in this series, i take the st. augustine lighthouse, which has always been a personal icon of mine, representing a tower of strength and courage, and use it here to remind me to follow my passion, to do whatever i have to do to take my journey of searching for Truth to the next level.  i use the lighthouse along with other universal, recognizable archetypes (painted in the small squares, surrounded by the matrix of space, time, and matter) as focus.  these paintins are reminders, meant to evoke humankind’s aspiring to a greater good (this is MY political activism, folks!).  just as we awake from a profound, prescient dream and only remember an image, a fragment of it here and there throughout the day, i attempt to portray in this series the remnants of a very real, very tangible inner remembrace: the images hint of who we really are, and where our spiritual journey (of the entire human race, mean) is taking us.  we run into these reminders, always, but do we stop to notice them?  bits and pieces of startling landscape, a word from a stranger, an angelic message on a bus ad, a glistening majestic river, a long road beckoning us to follow.  this series is about our path.  other places, other states of being-ness yet to explore.  here’s another of my lighthouse series, this one depicting an altogether different landscape. 

Moon Beach

Moon Beach

for years i used to run along st. augustine beach, and watch the lighthouse as it grew steadily more prominent.  i was always eager to see it rising over the sandy, sea oats-strewn dunes.  the closer i came to the lighthouse, the more excited i got.  my body would shiver, my breath felt sharper.  i was sure i felt the same as, and fully understood the significance of being “guided” that desperate sailors out at sea must have felt, whenever they sighted a lighthouse with the surrounding seas rough, the night dark, and the way, treacherous.  that’s my inspiration behind making this series.  i chose the lighthouse as my main motif, along with more recognizable totems of great impact, both spiritual and cultural, to convey a strong a message of hope to others.  this particular lighthouse, the one at st. augustine, has always been a beacon of inner strength in my own life.  here’s another of the series.

Shiva's Dance

Shiva's Dance

today, on blog lordflea, it seems to be: honor the Light Within Day!!  yes, that’s a passion of mine!  maybe you’ll feel the excitement i carry in my heart for the unseen Light we all carry within, by gazing at my lighthouse series.  i hope you enjoy them.  here’s the final in the series, as i wish you adieu, a very groovy day, enjoying whatever passion you happen to be engaged in at this very moment!

love from your pal, lord flea

Ghost Tree

Ghost Tree

change…the only constant in the Universe

i’m off to cambridge, mass for a fun-filled, information-packed reunion at the revered alma mater of my spouse, and to celebrate life and all its changes with our good friends of many years.

change…the only thing you can count on …

the cycle of life ... consistently changing

the cycle of life ... consistently changing

i’m thinking how i change … my body … where i am … my moods

and i’m thinking of how the world changes … seemingly so unstable, so vulnerable to outside influences.

and then i think of the one constant, besides change, that i’ve found that gives me great comfort in my journey here:

my deep contact with the Oneness of All — that force some call God, but i prefer Great Spirit.

i am a big fan of the I Ching, called the Book of Change, and written down by Confucious about 4,000 yrs. ago.  change has been a familiar comforting essence in my search for Truth.  i trust change.  i honor change.  but i also know that if i’m not flexible, like a young bamboo shoot, and allow change to happen, naturally — i am doomed for diaster.

i don’t know, i just felt like sharing that today.

mom is having a hard time adapting to the change that’s affecting her body.  her state of thinking has been altered by this tiny tiny TIA that hasn’t even registered in a CAT Scan.  but…change is not her comfort zone.

many people are freaking because of the unprecedently change in our financial world.  this is the time for all good people to rely upon nothing but their own Higher Selves.  that is the change we’re all challenged to accept.

the steadiness of eternity's change ... you and i, we are One

the steadiness of eternity

in case you’re wondering, this “down-ward dog” person i’m representing here, in sculpture and in black and white penstrokes, is the ancient egyptian goddess named Nut.  she represented the passage of the sun across the sky.  like the sun, Nut is symbolic of eternal life.  always changing, but always constant, and never ending.

i am here with you, and i wish you all a pleasant change, each and every moment of your lives.

now i change places, from st. augustine to boston!  always something.

in the Light, lordflea

we’re more similar than dissimilar

hi world,

do you recognize yet how much more similar all we humans are than dissimilar?

we are One

we are One

these days i’m thinking about the warm inside feeling i get when i think about behind human, particularly at this auspicious time in human history.  things are in such flux, aren’t they?  the world is quickly changing.  people are becoming awakened in record numbers than any other time, and ancient prophecies of “the time of reckoning” is quickly approaching (2012, I believe has been mentioned by many sources, as being pivotal to earthly existence).  things will never be the same again after 9.11, i knew that the day it occured.  that heart-stopping black tuesday.  i was not there, but it felt like i was.  i had visions of the event in my meditations that have greatly influenced my thinking, and the purpose of my life.

and now, less than 40 days before the november election, everyone here in America is all heated up with the passions of choices and preferences!  yes yes yes, now is the time to be heated!  yes yes yes.  get out there and do whatever you can to ensure your choice gets elected … speak, shout, argue, implore, poll, canvas–do whatever it takes. 

but–and this is the difference between spiritualized peole and non-spiritualized–when the tally has been counted and the new president has been elected, please commit to supporting whomever is elected.  whichever party ends up in power (it is a party thing, not an personality contest, right?), it is the Spiritually Correct (SC instead of PC, ha ha!), the humanly right thing to do, to support an elected official that has been chosen by the democratic process we honor in the U.S.A. 

after 9.11 a lot of people started to bad mouth our current president, George W. Bush.  to tell you the truth, i wasn’t any happier than the next guy about what was going on, but i nonetheless felt it was my spiritual duty to support him.  why?  because things are never what they appear to be.  i feel very strongly that i, as a private citizen (even though pretty well informed, compared to some) can never know what the insiders, the diplomats, the elected representatives of the citizenry knows.  how could a private person possibly think they can know what the politicians, the military, the professionals in charge of information-gathering and decision making know.  it’s simply not possible.

we don’t know how to perform brain surgery, most of us, but we do allow a surgeon to do his job without interfering in his methods.  similarly, i have determined it’s the spiritually correct thing to do to support our leaders, once they’ve been democratically elected, which mr. Bush, for better or for worse, was.  the time for dissention is over, in my SC committed existence, once the election is over.  and with bush, the time to bitch was over late in Nov. ’00, then then again in ’04.

so…be it wrong or right…i have learned to make a decision based on my spiritual “correctness” gauge (what would my teacher do…in any particular case? i ask myself) and have since the beginning of his term, decided to give Bush the benefit of the doubt, and not voice dissent, even though in my heart i was no more certain of his methodology than the next guy (hey! does that brain surgeon have to use that scapel, need to take that tissue sample? right then? over there?).  deciding to support our legally-elected leader doesn’t mean my confusion was cleared away by my decision to do the spiritually correct thing.  no, it simply means that i remain silent when others gather to discuss and usually end by dissing the current administration, for daring to do what they did.  i’m quite sick of the ugly dissention and hope this upcoming election will end it.  it probably won’t.  it seems human nature is for people to bitch.  that’s why political ads, just as toothpaste ads, love to put down their competitors.  it’s base, ugly, non-spiritualized human nature, and unfortunately, that kind of half-asleep-ness is still the majority of the population throughout the world.

YET…the consciousness of all is awakening.  the time for awareness–the real CHANGE–is happening. 

is it wrong or right to support an unpopular leader of a nation that elected him, when so many others seem to delight in dumping on g.w.?  even though many feel he stole the election from gore?  who am i, to be so presumptuous, to think i know more than the tens-of-thousands of people involved in the presidential decision, to think what he’s done is wrong?  how insanely presumptuous that thought is, to me.

but for the answer to my inner questions, i have to go within. 

going within in times of turmoil

going within in times of turmoil

when in doubt, i always find my true answers within.  not by listening to the conflicting opinions of intellectuals, fast-talking political pundits, or even the opinion of my friends, associates and the vastly popular, majority opinion.  i go within to discover what my heart-mind says is true–for me–and i listen to no one when i go within.  i listen to the Source of All.

going within, resting in the heart-mind

going within, resting in the heart-mind

this is the process i call “awareness, acceptance, action.”  i use this three-part process for each and every tiny or large step i’ve taken, in my journey to undo my childhood hang-ups, neurosis, mental tendencies and obstructions, or any other challenges that have blocked my ability to live a happy peaceful productive life.  whether it’s political, personal, or universal concepts i need to figure out, i do so with “awareness, acceptance, action” and have thus learned to function at an amazingly high happy level of inner peace…most of the time.

like the Dalai Lama said in a book i read by him recently, “i’m not perfect.  i just keep trying.  i recongize my mistakes, and try to do better the next time.”

the above painted screen is my way of trying to render in imagery, and humbly duplicate the extremely calmly experience of becoming aware…and once aware, simply sitting in the feeling of that new awesome state, so expansive, so honey-rich with wellness, blissfully full.

this screen (two-sided) is my weird way of trying to say “the acceptance of awareness” feels awfully damn great!! beautiful enough to create fine art about.

when i’ve accepted something (like higher consciousness), i no longer have any inner (or outer) dialogue of dissention.  it simply is.

how to connect with the state of awareness: take long, deep breathes somewhere quiet, alone, serene, clean.  put any issue, situation, person, etc. into that center of quietness, once you have reached the place (through continued deep breathing) where disturbing thoughts no longer pierce the emptiness of pure awareness (within us all).  then… just listen.  listen to the Truth that emanates from the heart-mind (of all).  serenity fills (all).  Truth is pure love (in all).  Truth is pure awareness (for all).  Truth is “seeing” things that you cannot discern in “ordinary” states of consciousness (awake, sleeping, thinking, analysing, etc.).  Truth is also God speaking, but one must be very quiet in order to hear this, and have already gone through the stages of purification (no addiction, no neurosis leftovers, no inner chatter dissention) in order to “hear” this pure voice of the Divine that awaits us all … in emptiness.

often i receive answers to the questions i put out to the Universe.  sometimes they’re as clear and as loud as inner “billboards.”  sometimes i just receive a “feeling” — something like being allowed to bathe my aching hurt (mental, physical, or spiritual) in pure soothing Love.  surrounded by the sea of Truth, the ocean of Love, the atmosphere of pure Bliss, the solution to problems becomes quite clear, quite simple, quite obvious.  quite Right.  learning to do this kind of discerning is called viveka, “spiritual discrimination,” in yogic scriptures.  Truth is here all the time, if we can all learn to quiet our “monkey mind” as the buddhists call our inner chatter (also known as the “freight-train” mind in other circles), and learn to go within to tap this incredibe Source of wisdom.

once i realize my Truth i can take action.

inner wisdom as inspiration for worldly action!

inner wisdom as inspiration for worldly action!

and thus…the process of

  • awareness
  • acceptance
  • action

can easily take place within us all.  but we must go within to do it.  most of us are too lazy to go within, but–i’ve learned it’s so delicious that i actually look forward to the time when i can meditate, go within, and relax in my inner Self. 

being human is about having choices.  we all can go within and listen to our inner “guide,” that wisdom within, the Source that is innate, pure consciousness that’s available to all of us, which represents Truth.  this inner Truth is more reliable than any politician’s campaign promise, or presidential decision.  the inner Truth is, in fact, subliminally influencing our ever expanding grasp on evolutionary possibilities, more than any organized group or culture, be they religious, political, scientific, social, or philosophical.

i know that you are just like me: that we are One, that we all are connected by our inner consciousness.  that is the Truth i have discovered in my quest for knowledge of what this life is all about.

the connectedness of all

the connectedness of all

truthfully, i trust no politician.  democrat or republican.  but i am voting, and my vote will be the best i can do.  but whomever wins i will support wholeheartedly.  i hope each and every one of my fellow americans will also support our newly elected leader. my wish is that we can leave this time of dissention behind us, and enter a phase of healing and growth that will help the entire world to come together as One.

in the Light, lord flea … sending gleaming banners of joyous, energizing white Light around the democratic process of election