Again With The Mirror - Synchronicity

Italy  - a Tuscan hillside holding a spring fed pool.

Since my last blog entry, I have been inundated with many synchronistically appearing resources. From this inflow, I am learning extensively and intensively.

I watched all 8 seasons, on Netflix, a series called "Heartland". It takes place near Calgary in horse and cattle country. It followed a dysfunctional  rancher family and their interactions with the surrounding community. Always a melodrama with a happy ending and breathtaking mountain views and loving connections to horses. T
he details of the dysfunction definitely reflected real life experience when I compared it to both  my own past and in the world today. Why do we think these patterns of relating are normal !!!

I watched the movie, "Celestine Prophecy" twice. I was not convinced that the true message of the book came through in this movie version. But, it was good to be reminded of the evolutionary unfolding that is happening in psyches and in the world today.

A TedX talk by Carolyn Myss entered the consciousness room next. She shared  four decisions which are essential to health and well being:
-decision to live a life of integrity
-decision to pass on wisdom
-decision to take risks
-decision to replace toxic words. (Pick a toxic word - or three words - to never use again and replace them with another word that is nourishing.)

This all brought me around to another exercise which my Interbeing mentor shared with me - not necessarily for me to do. It was called "fictional story". I wrote off the top of my head, not really thinking much about what I was writing. Then, after reading it, I reflected on what I had written. I was amazed at how, even though all the facts were different, the story  is  a mythological form of truth. To read it in this fictional form was a sigh of healing relief.

Recently, there are many distractions which have offered messages for growing healthy and happy. I am sure I can not actually be of service to my community and to the health of this Earth of ours, if all I know is destruction, despair, and hopelessly grieve over it all.  If I chronically obsess about all that is wrong in the world, I am only projecting my own chronic illness. When I can marvel at the first fruit growing on a tree in its life's time, I can support the Resistance to a disintegrating social  system. Participating in the creation of a new consciousness emerging, one is, oin truth, the creation of a progressive response to human suffering.


 I intend to pay attention to the s messages coming my way,  mirroring new possibility to replace chronic assumptions about being crucified. Which is it going to be for you?

Belonging in the Light of Here and Now

Miracle in the avocado tree. Does she belong where she is?

This year has been a year of becoming whole, a moment in a life's time when suffering and happiness have synthesized into one experience. They each hold their own integrity, and the roller coaster ride has been replaced with this unitive perspective.

this year has been charged with overwhelming anger, learning to acknowledge it, be grateful for it, and transforming it into love and understanding. Mindful moments of breathing have been transformative, as I l continue to learn to rest peacefully in the present. 

This year has been a wrenching bucketful of lessons in the arena of how to experience myself as planting only seeds of positive energy in communicating and working together with other people. How easy it is to lash out in revenge (if only in my thoughts) and shroud any possibility of reconciliation with dirt flinging  depression. . How refreshing to plant seeds in the good earth, follow  the wisdom of sun, rain and darkness in nourishing growth of the highest good in others and in the community as a whole.

Dying to any need of being welcome for the sensitive, capable, caring and gifted soul that I am, I have encountered the pain and joy of humiliation every step of the way into this whole new world of walking alone. 

The temptation has been present within me to destroy another for rejecting me, an outsider who will never belong, has stood squarely in my face, there  for me to reckon with boldly.

One person in particular, holds this mirror of an energy which is insisting on being acknowledged.

 She was there for many life cycles and has re-entered  as I become more community orientated again. 

the first encounter was when I called her to find out about who else was helping in the preparation of a benefit's meal. She went on and on about how someone else was in charge and insinuated that I was not welcome. Well, as reality would have it,  I was not only welcome, but my help was  needed. 

The second time this mirror of my own psychic energy appeared, she was taking up a collection. When it got to me, I was taking a photo of the sun rising.  She loudly, so that the rest of those gathered heard,  asked me if I had anything to give.  I chuckled at the irony of that question.

My internal response to each of these appearances of my own belief that I do not belong where I am was to explode in anger. Fortunately for her and for my own integrity, I have been guided by a wise teacher of wisdom and have learned much about  suffering and how to understand this energy in a way that divine light of love can heal and transform. 

This may seem insignificant to some To others of us, the ability to understand what is happening, letting its greater purpose be affirmed,  and facilitating its transformation, is the wisdom held in, I would venture to say,  the contentless center of the mythology of all religions.  

Well, I completed my part of the benefit meal that I agreed to prepare. I shared the photo of the sunrise. I belong where I am. I have a deep feeling of gratitude for the woman who mirrored my own suffering so I could continue my own healing journey. 

I will be walking daily, belonging on a rainy or sunny day in Crescent City, Florida.  Care to come along?

Refreshing Sea of Painful Reality and Crippling Illusion

This blog, Circle Firefly Dance, has primarily been a series of life experiences I have had, reflecting through the screen of Psychosynthesis processing. I have tried to highlight the process as I proceeded with the narrative.  I have published over 250 experiences and deleted a few, saving them to a separate file, not because I do not stand on every word I write, but because requests were made that I do so and to do so does not compromise the guidelines by which I have chosen to live.

There is no absolute way to live, no doctrine worth dying for. Each challenge to my stance is an opportunity to learn more about being alive.

I have been known to defend my position more than occasionally, but in the end, each day is a new opportunity for love and understanding rather than disdain in the act of comparison between reality and expectations.

Here changes and Now changes continually and when I am able to listen and feel deeply, I am able to go with the flow of that change.

Adjusting well to being a solitary, I nevertheless am a social person, as are we all, no matter what the extent of our introversion. I have always had difficulty going places alone and am finding that has not changed. However, I have made the effort and am making new friends, wonderful people with much to share and are fun to be with.

 The days of sleeveless are long gone, the waist band is elastic, the wrinkles prevail, and the long silences from me in the company of one or many is obvious intrusive energy. Such self depreciating must haves regarding body beautiful  must go. Truth is, what really stands before the mirror is awesome and this is true for all of us.

Great changes are occurring in my heart and in this world. Nothing really makes sense anymore. There is nothing upon which to depend (How's that for good grammar?)   Nothing to fall back on for security. No one to turn to for direction. All we have known and been is collapsing, floating down the river, blowing in the wind, dying before our eyes.

Is this bad? No. This is all good. Let it all die dead. Weep. Mourn. Grieve.  Then we can begin creating a world where we only nourish Highest Good, Divine presence, God's love, social justice,  peaceful coexistence, love and understanding.

I am willing to give it a go. How about you?

Jammin' With the Blues Just Ain't the Same Now

Underneath and encompassing the many different stories of who we are, what we are doing here and how we best be exemplars of the Divine, is a common understandingof what could be a final act or a continuation of all that there ever was.

Recently, I attended a day long musical festival with two of my friends who were performing. One of them was the only female performer of the day. She had performed with her husband for twenty five years. He has since returned to the quantum, but his reputation lives on. She now has a new partner who blends in a more modern sound to this expression of the Soul.

A man from Georgia was particularly adoring of my friend to the point where his wife finally contacted her. They agreed to meet at this festival. The friendship was instant, even more like a family reunion. I was included in this family circle. Believe me when I say I was an enthralled participant observer of an historical moment.

Their daughter also performs in the same genre and fell in love with my female role model friend who has already mastered that to which this young women aspires. She asked her if they could sing together before the day was over. This was arranged at the end during a final jam session.

My friend did not know what to expect. This young woman's presence lives somewhere in the realm of the ecstatic. She radiated a love for life and everything in it like no one I have ever met. She was filled to the overflow with praises. She, her mother, and her father danced to the music and even got me out there dancing. And talk? All praise and sharing of the positive life she has been blessed to live.

 I could go on for a long time with this family's impact on my day and my friends' well deserved praise. This family is a gift everywhere they go. Of this I am certain. Most people who come to these things enjoy the music, rarely really letting the music carry them away to the land of joyous effulgence. This day, with these folks, was a whole new way of living the blues.

Events of the day around this family worked its way up into a high frequency. And then the moment arrived when my seasoned musician friend and this young aspirant sang together, without any rehearsal. they were accompanied by one of the festival organizers who is an accomplished musician in his own right.

they sang their hearts out. My friend  sang back up almost to this reincarnation of Janis Joplin passion. Two women stood together and sang like it was their final act on earth. Yet, it was a beginning, even more so a continuation, of  a long established genre, about to come into its own.

I needed that day. We all need days like this. We need days that mirror the ecstasy of the joyful dance which rests deep within our hearts yearning for a welcoming of its presence.

My friends deserve the praises they have received. I have been blessed with observing them being showered with the praise they so deserve. They are fine performers. Their whole lives are dedicated to singing the blues and these blues are not sad the way they are performed. These songs express feelings of the heart.The voices are vehicles for  affirming the  every day reality called the blues. And then the electric guitar sends it all on its way.

People like this family from GA have been there and experienced radical freedom so they can bring such joy to a festival and can get us all dancing to the blues.

I am for this way of seeing life. How about you?

An Act of Responsibility

Taking responsibility could be, but is not necessarily a moment of confession for having erred.

Being responsible could be the source of what has happened,  but might be a leadership characteristic.

Assuming responsibility for the  whole of it all, is accompanied by an understanding that we are One.

In that understanding, we are empowered with freedom.

 When a firepit is still  filled with ashes remaining from a campfire, the ashes must be removed.  When the firepit is swept clean and sits empty, it is ready for the next campfire. 

An empty fire pit is free.

Emptying it is an act of responsibility.

Are the ashes still sitting in your firepit?  Imagine the new campfire blazing.

Willing the "Yes" Is Responsibility Accepted

I believe this is someone else's pic - closest I can come to credits

During this past year, my greatest struggle has been to take responsibility, as the victim, for the pain and the injustice involved in the cycle of events which has left me alone in the desert, metaphorically speaking.

 During this season,  my  historical  Christianity roots tells the story of the temptation to escape the inevitable by sacrificing the truth.

 The present national political situation is nearly a mirror of my own life experiences during this  past year.  As has been the case with my own situation, I have also struggled with arriving at a place of unconditional positive regard for the leader of this nation.  How can I forgive, let go of,  a highly organized, systematic, marketing campaign, designed to manipulate the course of events through big bold lies and brutal alienation?" - (let alone completely accept the results)

 Yes, I see my  own experience of this last year mirrored in the present political upheaval. At the same time, I am asking  myself,"Where is my responsibility for these totally unexpected outcomes?"

In this process of accepting responsibility, I consider the following:

1.   I am not going to change either side of this mirror of the past no matter what.  It is what it is here and now. At the same time, there is always available a new sunrise every day.

2.   The scars which are forming from a deeply penetrating wounding,  indicate healing is occurring. It may take years and a multitude of antidotes,  plastic surgery and even esoteric healing techniques. Or it night resolve itself very soon.

3.  The traumatizing events which led to the outcome have no power over me. Letting them determine my thoughts, emotions, and reactions is a waste of energy.  I will not nourish this drama with my attention.

4.   I will not deny destiny. I don a robe of peace, embroidered with love and understanding. It is not comfortable. This robe is the Will to to say, "Yes!" to the way life is, responsible for how I contribute to the whole and its healing power.

5.   I take responsibility for having underestimated the danger, assuming all would work out for the best without making an effort to define "the best". I have always preferred freezing to fight or flight.  I did not take time to disidentify from my own pain and need for support in order to listen and observe critically.

6.   Even avoiding red flags was a great opportunity to deny the probability of the inevitable effects of the manic onslaught onto a bright future.

The truth exists only in unconditional positive regard for the really real, not in negative perspectives, including psychological analysis of personality disorders. While confrontation was needed, it did not  inspire a nation to unify. Instead we are separate, isolated, and this is sustained with lies.  Love, empathy and understanding, even basic care has been upstaged by a clear intent to go back to the way things used to be a long time ago. You have to wonder if it was really all that great, given the present havoc the past has shaped the character of the present.

Now, responsibility for the whole thing means to acknowledge who I am, who we are, let go, accept the call to heal, and dance the great, "Yes," all the way to the final breath.

That final breath is an exhale, accompanied by a deep sigh. A refreshing emptiness remains.

What happens after a long silence in this emptiness is a new beginning. There is plenty of time for this new beginning to unfold. this is a healing process.

Are you willing to exhale that last breath with a sigh of release, dwell in the silent emptiness and let the new beginning unfold, insight by insight?

ThreeWomen on A Mission

Three  movies, all based on true stories:  Florence Foster Jenkins, Noble, and Redwood Highway.

Three women: Florence Foster Jenkins, Christina Noble, and Anna Marie.

Florence was an extremely wealthy women, by inheritance from her father's estate. She contributed generously to musical endeavors in New York City. An accomplished pianist, she could no longer play. She did some social circle acting and decided to become a singer, with an image of herself as able to sing like Lily Pons, the famous soprano diva. Her singing was simply awful (it was especially humorous to watch Meryl Streep belting out these screeches). Florence was supported by literally everyone of the people she kept close to her., who all were benefitting financially from their loyalty. The newly hired piano accompanist attempted to point out the reality but was quickly hushed by a reminder that he was making good money.  In the end, the illusion was broken, after learning that she had been the brunt of great laughter, from her solo concert at Carnegie Hall. She died shortly after, but not without sharing with her "devoted" husband, the words,  "Maybe I can't sing, but I sang!" Then she died while drifting off to final sleep, as she imagined herself singing, this time with wings and emulating her illusion.

Christina Noble was an Irish woman whose childhood was poverty filled suffering  - abuse, hunger, and abandonment. This was during the Vietnamese War which triggered a dream of her being there alleviating poverty stricken children's suffering.  She did goto Viet Nam as an adult an proceeded to do manifest that dream,  refusing to give up until she succeeded in convincing benefactors and bureaucrats of the possibility to change things for the better. 

Anna Marie was an elder whose son had placed her in an assisted living facility, selling her house, her belongings  and her car. She was filled with resentment, especially when he moved her to a second  home so she would be closer to where he lived. Her new home mates supported her resentment. Her granddaughter's wedding was coming up. She did not support it and was not going to go. She was estranged from her beloved granddaughter and resented her son. After having a strange dream she didn't understand, she set out to walk to her granddaughter's wedding 80 miles away. Her reasoning was that "they "took everything else away but she still had her feet". She didn't tell anyone of  her plans. They would  have stopped her. She did arrive after encountering allies and obstacles along the way - in the style of  Joseph Campbell's great mythic journey. Arriving just in time, she had left a trail behind her of those who searched frantically for her, fearing for her safety. She, on the other hand, gained a new perspective on her own life experiences which had embittered her. And she became aware of the meaning of her dream.

 I really struggled, even as I sat in the place of Higher Self , with the authenticity of Florence . She paid her way through life.Yet, she had suffered much and deserved the recognition and admiration that she was receiving . Finally, in the end, it was clear that she had no regrets. She had reconciled to the life and the voice that she had lived. She found her voice. That is the message to me. It is important to have found your own grateful voice of the heart. 

 Having lived a life of service myself, I could more easily relate to Christina. She wanted to alleviate human suffering and so did I . Perhaps neither one of us realized that by our service to social change , we were also alleviating healing our own pasts. It doesn't really matter life has made us who we are and she definitely did make a difference in Vietnam in the lives of so many children . It was the beginning and that's what our lives always are. 

 Anna Marie was a woman of great determination . She was ordinary people . She had to leave her home . She had to make a new life and a new lifestyle . She moved from her home and she moved from another home and she was better because she did not understand this loneliness of having to start over again and again . She to set out to make a statement and in the process, was able to heal her own inner turmoil and she proceeded . She felt the freedom available in being alone in a new environment. She experienced the support that is present as  she proceeded on her journey. She was assaulted with some of the harsh realities which led her to awakening, finally, to the source of her suffering and how it was an illusion that a lifetime of loneliness had shrouded . She saw the parts of her life when she was happy. One could say that she was the great drama queen as she went about making this statement. Truth is though, a woman's got to do what she's got to do for the best of all reasons - Love and Understanding . 

 Every woman on this earth, I and man, has a purpose. Each has a unique contribution. Nothing worth doing ever fits into a predetermined pattern. Life happens as an unfolding adventure.  Life is good that way.

 Who is the woman in your life, who, for you, is a heroine  on your meditative council? As a subpersonality in your psyche's heart, what name do you give her ?

Spiritual Practice is an Amazing Path

I spent the weekend in retreat. This was a mindfulness retreat. At the same time it was more than that. It was a great weekend  of disidentifying from the angst  that many of us have been consumed with for sometime now then identifying with The Beauty of Being.

 For months, I had been learning to live alone. This is the first time in my life when I actually have the whole day and the whole night to myself.

 Each day I  am learning to enjoy being myself.  I step out into the world cautiously, determined to  lose what  I might, as a psychologist, call The Social Anxiety Disorder. I have always had it, but there have been times when it did not call the shots. Mostly, these days, I prefer to refer to this "subpersonality" as The Fierce Introvert or The Radical Solitary, which, socially speaking, is a much healthier perspective of one's presence in the world.

 At the retreat, I awakened to the reality that I really am enjoying being a solitary when inside my own home. I asked myself, "If I step into the world on a regular basis, what keeps me so anxious?"  I do fear having nothing to offer and have been known to avoid at all costs, feeling powerless, rejected, helpless, at a loss for how to respond to suffering --- and the list goes on. It's not like paranoia. It's not  The Victim nor The Saboteur . I simply want to be a Relevant Presence in the world, a woman on the path of freedom balanced with responsibility.

 I have much to offer. I have created boundaries that are healthy. I know that I would like to be of service in my community. I know that I would like to participate in being a voice among the many who want to continue to see progress in this nation in this world. The only problem is how I feel about myself . I need to be the one who wants to be me in the world just as I am.

Yes, it has nothing to do with whether or not somebody wants me in their life or in their project or at their social gathering. It is simply about willing  to be a Relevant Presence in the world - both flaws and gifts.

This struggle  comes to the forefront at this time, intensely and unavoidably due, initially to the trauma in my personal life this past year, but today to the national economic and political crisis especially. I am wondering how I can stay focused on the resurgence of the masses of people who are standing up for a healthy social vehicle while the old one is dying hard and dangerous with a fierce vengeance!

A meditative council walks with me:
 - An ancient insight I like to repeat over and over is, "To be alive is a miracle!"
- The ancient culture which repaired cracked bowls with gold,
- The totally peaceful Women's March on January 21, 2017 where over a billion people both men and women of all ages walked together, announcing the presence of the emerging age of a compassionate civilization, determined that we will live on a healthy planet.

Most importantly,  is an  image of a safe place, created in Higher Self,  through which to experience the world while I am in it.  My safe place has green grass on the banks of Lake Champlain and the sun is setting in a colorful sky over the lake and where walking barefoot is a joyous playful pastime. I have been there, sustained in Spirit and can imagine being there everywhere I go. I may have to paint it on a canvas to remind me that the world is safe and being here is a comfortable risk beckoning, ever welcoming.

We have only just begun, folks. Pointing out what is wrong is going nowhere. Time is come to BE the new reality. We are both the old and the new.

Is your safe place in your Soul created and ready to carry with you as the new social vehicle emerges with you fully part of its creation?

Fate of a Past which No Longer Serves

First I ate all the holidays' leftover food and was sick with "the grip" for a day or two. The unhealthy contents of the leftovers are among many I will no loner be eating.

Then I purged my closets of ALL the clothes which no longer serve who I am today and are uncomfortable. I loved everything I put in the two huge bags which got placed in the second hand drop off up on the corner.

Sweaters which I love, too heavy for even  the coldest weather in Florida, were boxed and mailed north.

Books - storage bins full - will find their way to the library and from there probably will be tossed anyway. I thought about opening a new age book store or browsing room, and may yet. In the meantime, they are in storage. All of them, except maybe Saviors of God  by Nikos Katsinzakis and a couple of others out of print,  are available on line and any information I need  is easily googled.

My home itself is almost streamlined, but has a way to go to eliminate doubles and triples. A yard sale should solve that problem. I even cancelled the tv service because I don't need it at all.

I do have one of all I need to accommodate increasing age related ailings and failings.

Almost everything is up to date or repaired. Going up and down the stairs will someday be a challenge, but not yet, so for now it serves its purposes - more privacy and good exercise.

Outside, the grounds are now manageable, all that I can not do myself,  or cause discomfort to maintain,  has been replaced, mostly by Zen spots. I can afford to pay someone to mow the lawn and trim the trees.

I must admit, that all the physical changes I have made were driven by Psyche, rather than a rational, thought out list of what is needed in order to move into the future, continuing this journey to Self.

Psyche's methodology consists of an emerging thought, triggered by a message from something I was reading or watching or a conversation.  A conscious awareness grows within me related to a desire to make a similar change. For example, a friend said she had just cleared her closets. I thought about my own closets and how I had considered that so many times recently. I considered the pros and cons before resolving to clean out my closets.

In the same spirit of shedding old baggage, I saw a movie in which friendships ended because they were toxic to this woman who had a new lease on life. Finally, I encountered the presence of  mold growing in the closets. By this motivating awareness, I chose a time and soon all the clothes which represented selves I no longer was or needed, were  in bags and out of my life.

I have all I need to stand present to life as it is now in 2017.  None of it really material,  I understand the meaning of physical surroundings in my life.  I know I could live without any of what I have accumulated. What I may need is available in many different forms.

More and more I am drawn to that which sustains  the presence of the Divine and my ability to continue the journey in this realm.

Most beautiful in this place, in these clothes I have kept, is the possibility of acknowledging the highest good and understanding the real motivation for the action of others.  The grievous suffering we experience in our disappointment with and inability to control outcomes burns to ashes eventually.

 The blessings bestowed in grieving's place, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, calls out for our leadership in systems transformation, of ourselves and of society.

 All is gone which no longer serves a real need. A new vision begins to form, a new strategy, a new approach to bringing into being a new way, as Gandhi put it,  to BE the change you want to see.

I am not perfect. I slip and fall into an obsolete self often. I get to feeling lonely in this place whuch is not the well worn past. But, I am determined to be relevant and so I continue the journey.

 Are you willing to be the change you want to see alive in the world today?

Love -In Any Language

 A group of residents of a local facility met with my colleague and I for an initial meeting toward creating a segment of an upcoming talent show. The intent is to glean from their memories, the rich slices of life they can share, weaving it into a story that is their Story.

These women, all there just to observe, had powerful images to share in response to my colleague's questions.

 From our sharing, it was revealed that the activities aide, my colleague, and the administrator have roots in the same small city in Indiana. We learned that two of the women have the same middle name - Joy - which both had been called all their lives. I learned that I was the oldest one there!!

One of the women is a full Cherokee, is very skilled at making dream catchers, Spirit doors, etc. and will be presenting  Cherokee dancing with her sister soon. This woman is very well acquainted with Cherokee tradition and was born in the original Cherokee settlement in Kentucky. (She is also very good at sharing the pain from stories passed on to her, still alive in her young heart, of the Trail of Tears.

Needless to say, people are eager for their stories to be heard.

My colleague and I are going to shed any procedures we might have available to follow. Instead, we will arrive each week with an open heart, ask more questions, and watch while their willingness to participate grows.

I was addressed by the commonality we all share as women. Men, are of course welcome, but seem to be scarce at the moment. It may be they traditionally have a tendency to maintain their independence longer, until they are much less able to be communicative.

Being invited to share one's life is rare. As one woman said today, no one in her whole life has even given a hoot about the loving memories she might share.She added that almost all she has shared is her problems and even that was like talking to herself.

They got a laugh out of my telling a story about a friend who wouldn't let her husband take me to pick up my car that was in the shop. It is a ten minute drive  and wouldn't be a half hour out of his life. She said he had an appointment. Because I would have had to go out of my way to avoid it, I went by their house on the way to a yard sale (in my golf cart) and back an hour and a half later, I  ran in to another friend at the sale who agreed to take me. The friend's husband's  car was there when I went by and when I came back and again when I came home an hour after, driving my car.

I shared how I felt and a couple of the women joined in with humorous  remarks about getting revenge.

I then related my conclusion on the whole affair. People are people and if I love who I am where I am, I accept other people's behavior. I do not know their reasons for why they act as they do. I accept it and that, I propose is love - in any language.

This is a posting of love among people. I know that for years, there was a movement to wash it out and hang it on the line to dry, but these days, I am finding that the unconditional aspect of love, is of the utmost importance.

What is the love story you have to tell?

Buddha Resolve

December 30th was a warm windy day. 2016 and the finish line with one more stride to step into the last day of the year. 

I was experiencing a pause in the continuation of time and I was wandering into a new realm of existence,one far beyond the everyday reflection mode. I took a breath and stepped back to honor the new physical reality in which I now live, one far different from a year ago today.

 Emotionally, I have analyzed the whys and wherefores of the events of this past year and honor the truth of my conclusions and the healing of the trips to get away and explore other aspects of my existence which are valuable to me.

 Mentally, I honor my grieving heart and never cease to be amazed at my resilience in letting go of any attachments to what should be or I could have done differently. Slowly, I let go of the nagging rehash of events which would really prefer to become habitual should I allow them to continue. 

I can not change the way life is right now. In fact, I am grateful. If it took all of the onslaught of this past year for me to be able to be meandering through this realm where all of life's experiences are a gift, then I wouldn't change a thing about it. (I know! Marilyn Monroe said it first!!)

I know I came into this incarnation with a sacred contract and have been about collecting the shards of my broken life, as life IS broken for us all after all is said and done.  Right speech and action, I am learning, is more than determining and communicating the true facts, the scientific analysis, the acceptance of outcomes beyond stoic resignation,  or the attempts to mend estrangements.

In this realm, which I choose to call Higher Self, Divine Energy holds me, us, in a different mode of responding to human suffering - our own and that which is present everywhere in today's world.

Entering a new way to live, I took time on the 30th to print out, read, and wad up into balls ready to burn, an 82 page document which for me represented all the negative attacks on my character and on the character of all people in this world this past year.  This destructive energy has been available all year for anyone to buy into. Many did. Many did not. 

I took the wads of paper to our newly purchased lot next door, to the center of the lot.  I also took a candle to call in the Buddha Energy always  readily available, too. I lit the candle and set it into a place dug out to hold it erect. Then I lit the wads, one by one, from the candle and monitored their burning until the whole document was nothing but white ashes.

I placed my finger in the ashes The ashes that clung to my finger, I placed on my third eye just as a priest does on Ash Wednesday.

Then I picked up the candle and carried it home. To my amazement, it stayed lit allthe whole way home  - about 100 ft. in real time.

I know this year will be a time of energy spent on visioning the new realities this world needs - which I need, and no energy spent worrying about what negative energies have and will continue to  produce. 

Can you perceive what I am saying about changing a way of responding? The great revolutions of the 60s required awakening a sleeping world to""he times which were a changin'.  

Today, because the world is available through the massive media explosion of the 20th Century atechnological revolution,  I do not believe we are living in a changing world that needs awakening to.  Being alive is perpetual change in and of itself.  Everything has really really really changed. Just as a baby cries when encountering the new reality which is not the womb anymore,  people are crying out in protest to having awakened to this strange world with no skills to function here. 

I will gather Buddha, mindfully focused on a vision for  this reality,  one which isa birthing insight to provide direction into the future.

Where and how will your energy be focused in2017?  How will you be sustained in holding a new vision for your life and for the new patterns that must emerge in social systems everywhere?

2016: The Year of Final Blessings

Chartres Cathedral, France, a night view from our hotel Windows

 This year the obvious appeared in radical fashion.
In May,  I rearranged my home to accommodate one with occasional guests, booked a trip to Europe to heal and do three things I really had wanted to do for a long time, which now was free to do unencumbered by worry about what was happening at home.

I attended an Institute of Cultural Affairs archives sojourn in Chicago. I was about worthless to help in the work because of my waning eyesight, but enjoyed the collegiality of folks I had known my entire adult life, worked with, and now travelled to the basement of our history, encountering the archival treasures still untouched there, and back into the new Greenrise edge of the ICA's work in the world today.

I visited my son, in Germany, who is in the Army. He was on leave during the last two weeks in September. We went to a pumpkin festival at a magnificent castle. We trekked to Weisenfels to explore our German heritage. We walked around Ansbach. We drove to Birkenstock and stocked up on shoes. Most of all we got to know each other as the human beings we really are.

Then we headed for France. First we went to Burgundy, to Taize for a Sunday Eucharist with 600 singing the mass  followed by a drive through the countryside where we ran into a horse show.

Then on to Paris for a cruise on the Seine and a a hop on hop off tour of the city.  Our kaleidoscopic encounter with Paris after a lifetime of learning of all these places in movies, magazines, and the news, was a reminder that we all live on one Earth after all.

Chartres may have been the high point of our tour together. The Cathedral was full of mystery and history and I suspect we took it all in, including a climb to the top of the bell tower (by my son) and a guided tour of the catacombs which took us back to the year 1000. AND I got to stand at the center of the dromenon made famous by Jean Houston's work.

Our final day together, we spent at the Louvre in Paris. Again, I am pretty sure we didn't miss much. I was exhausted as proof of a full and art filled day. We parted ways then.

My son went back to Germany and I went on to Southern France, to Plum Village for a two week Buddhist retreat - a final opportunity to reflect and make new decisions about the trauma of the first five months of this year. By this process I felt joy and peace and acceptance of my journey to Self.

Finally back in Germany, we did as little as possible for my son's 50th birthday (per his request). We did some Christmas ornament shopping at Rothenburg outlet, and on the final day drove to  Stuttgart to head home to Crescent City.

The whole 38 days was rich and full of love and adventurous encounters.

Healing was complete and wholly purifying

. (I almost forgot to add two healing visits where I felt really cared for - one to Venice, FL to spend a few days with old time ICA colleagues; the other in Burlington, VT to celebrate a dear Psychosynthesis colleague's 65th and retirement.)

(The first annual Scarecrow Festival was a huge success - the planning group met in my living room even while I was gone.)

(My niece, her husband and two sons came for Thanksgiving. Christmas is promising to be filled with good tidings and family gathering. Does it get any better?)

I am grateful for the journey, too, Maya Angelou. In every encounter, I breathe in the newness of the future I am stepping into gently and mindfully.

Returning to the turmoil of a hurricane aftermath and totally absurd election campaign, and getting sucked in on occasion to a sense of hopelessness about the future of this nation, I nevertheless find my self searching for the future building significance of it all.  For my own life, this year, this has been the situation, with a heart breaking ending and resolute new beginning. For this nation, I have glimpses of the final blessing innately present in false allegations of  epic psychotic proportions.

If my life since my return to Crescent City is any indication of an inviting future, then it can happen in this nation. As has been the case all this year, whatever the situation, I have learn ed to accept it as gift of exactly the stuff needed for creating a new and beautiful art form of life as it really is.

Many have experienced this year as being one of radical change accompanied by a dread assault on routine and secure patterns. Have you experienced it - other than the campaign fiasco this year?

A Walk With Thay

During my sojourn in Plum Village, one part of the day was a walking meditation. We followed a leader through nature's presence together, breathing mindfully as we proceeded.

On the third gathering of the three hamlets (Upper Hamlet for males, New Hamlet for females, and Lower Hamlet for females and couples) everyone came to New Hamlet, where I stayed. As we just began our walk, a car pulled in where we were passing by. In it was Thich Nhat Hanh, escorted by monks who assisted him in his wheelchai., making it possible for him to take the lead in our walk.

If you haven't heard of him, please google him. He is the most well known Buddhist teacher in the world today. In Plum Village we energize Buddha energy  -mindfulness, concentration, and insight, with sitting, walking, eating, and working meditation. Although a very relaxed atmosphere, the journey is intense. 

We headed up the steep hill, through the plum trees which were rich with ripe fruit to harvest. When I attempted to climb the hill earlier in the sojourn, I was the last one to reach the top, lagging far behind.

This walk was slow and calming while breathing and being aware that we were breathing, so I was able to keep up with the crowd of 300 monks, nuns, and sojourners.

Part way up the hill, Thay, as he is informally called, had everyone stop.  He can not physically talk, but his presence and arms guided us to contemplate the hill we were climbing. The pause occasioned reflections within my soul, mythic in their essence. I breathed in this refreshing perspective on a physically arduous task.

A little while later, we stopped. The attending monks turned him around, and he invited us to contemplate a small yellow flower similar to a dandelion. He marched the flower  from left to right and back, occasionally  patting the shaven head of a monk sitting beside him. He moved his hands as if giving a dharma talk, and radiated a playfulness from his presence.

We continued this walk up the hill for awhile longer. Thay, in the lead, had the attending  monks turn his wheel chair around again. Focused on the walkers, he waved his hand across the span of  men , women,  and a few children, inviting us to contemplate the community gathered. I was further down the hill looking up the hill. There was an opening from where I sat to where Thay was and he seemed to be looking straight at me.  Others mentioned later that they had the same experience.

We did not go to the top of the hill. Rather, we turned around and headed back down the hill through the plum trees and into the fields next to it, arriving at the huge gong hanging under its oriental canopy in the center of the compound.


I am not one to be an adoring follower of anybody or anything. But, there is something special about a man who has been mindfully living for so many years. The week of this walk was the week of his 90th birthday - or in the Vietnamese tradition  - Continuation Day,

I was doing this sojourn to jump start my neglected daily spiritual practice. The goal has been reached. I am very grateful to be breathing mindfully again. I am reaping the benefits of a quieted mind concentratimg on the fullness oft his present moment, as it continually changes.  I am at peace and have a multitude of images of people living mindfully, to sustain me, including the presence of Thich Nhat Hanh.

My journey to the East has been an art form creating its Self as myself continues its Soul synthesis.

How do you sustain your daily spiritual practice and renew it when needed?

Post Trauma: The Joyous Journey

Every morning as I began my daily walk, I would take in the beauty of this prolific wall of blue and green. The sight always took my breath away. These plumbago were able to grow this year and were full like this for twenty-five more feet along this west side of the garden space.

Recently, I hired the same  gardener we always used to clear the garden of weeds and plants which dried up after the harvest.  This would be replaced with a mulch covered  sacred space.

I left the gardener and her son alone to clear the garden. When I came out to check if they were finished, they had already trimmed all of the thirty-five feet of lush plumbago almost to nothing. She was surprised at my reaction - an astonished gasp - because this is how she has always cared for the yard.

As time passes on, green leaves are beginning to fill in the grey-brown barren spaces, and new clusters of flowers are beginning to bloom across the span of a well trimmed hedge.

O My!! That event was so like the trauma of the past nine months of my life. In the same way, the devastation, angst, and violation are behind me now. The verdicts of the false allegations confirmed the truth and I have once again been reminded that the system, corrupt as it may be, still stands for the truth, the best interests and the highest good. I am actually relieved that there will be no garden now. I am relieved that there will be no more of many intrusions on  a peaceful existence. The cats and I are adjusting to the joyous newness of  the journey into the future.

In honor of a joyous journey into the future, I have deleted the last twelve posts, two of which I never published. I wrote the truth in all of them. On the other hand, I intend to never have to experience their content or their cause ever again. I printed them out and put them in a folder called "Final Blessings  - or Inana's House of Heaven Relived".

As a final event, just before this new moon solar eclipse, storms are passing through and the rain is falling intermitently all the time and will be for most of the week. The rains are washing away all that has happened, refreshing the plants - especially the grass which is allowed to grow again, healing all its wounds caused by the merciless summer sun.

This new moon solar eclipse will not be visible in North or South America, but it will BE, nevertheless.  It will create a ring of fire, signaling radical decisions to change and to  manifest what has positive meaning and purpose. I sense it happening right now.

Relax and just let it Be.

What new decisions are you wanting to make and what are the dreams you are going to make real?

Leap Year Day

Well,  I asked him and he has  declined.

Here in leap year when traditionally I have society's blessing to ask him, I did, with no reason to believe, given our life together for so many years, he would not agree that the time is now.

So I ask myself, "Is this  declining my proposal in fact a  blessing ?".

He had assured me that he is happy where he is, just does not want to be married legally. In being true to my own desire, I do not really want to be married legally either. All was well between us until he was hospitalized and his family members challenged my care giving ability.

Many elder couples around here are not married legally and that fact goes unnoticed. They agree on how to handle hospitalizations and get their wills in order. They have the support of their families for their life choices.

I have had to reflect on what it is I wanted to gain by being married. While watching a movie with a similar plot, I had an insight about this. I saw, heard, felt, even tasted and smelled the truth of the matter.

(1)  I was feeling alone, unprotected, vulnerable,  even betrayed. (2) I deserve to feel loved, safe and welcome in this relationship. (3) I want the love I give to be received with open arms and a big hug.

Call me selfish and I will not agree. Everyone has these needs. When these basic human needs go unmet, disease happens.  Having the confidence to state one's needs in a relationship is a dialogue, one that cements the foundation of a healthy coexistence.

So, if this Leap Year Day's proposal occasioned nothing else (like a wedding in the near future), it has been a LEAP in my own commitment to wholeness and health and  a desire to deeply love a life partner in a way that no one will ever challenge our right to be who we are together.

Reflect on a time you have risked the possibility of rejection and abandonment and discovered Divine's blessing in the really real?

My Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

the Lake at Marjorie Neal Nelson Park

During my morning mediation, I opened my heart to receiving an answer to a question that has been nagging at me since I saw the movie,the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The question is two-fold:

Where is my destined Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?

 and 

What do I have to offer its growth and sustainability?

This week, I have been participating virtually, 0n a program called "Hangout",  in an Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) archives Sojourn, held in Chicago at what has become to know as "The Greenrise". Once a global centrum for the ICA time has provided its transformation into  a social demonstration of urban environmental responsibility.  As well, it houses offices of  ICA USA.

I began working with one group and ended up working with another. Given the Divine Mystery's  ability to  place people where they are really supposed to be in order to gain information for decisions that are needed soon, I was not surprised that I ended up in a "New Religious Mode" (NRM) group.

This group was looking at this amazing work that the ICA had created in the late 60's and early 70's to determine its applicability to this century and create a new packaging if necessary.

I recently shared this NRM chart with some local colleagues, as a framework for creating questions for a story telling project, - questions that would elicit stories shared from the Heart.  This NRM group was just what I needed to reawaken a deeper resolve to let Soul breathe through Heart Space, releasing a story in the process.

At the end of the week's sojourn, windows of possibility opened in my imagination of all the different ways I could live a life of service again, even as an elder with several limitations.  

As I drifted off to sleep last night after this stimulating, reawakening week, the wide open future was dancing through my dreams.

This morning I listened for an answer and, if nothing else,  I am clear that this small village where I live is  a Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  I have been on the right track with this story telling project and the people in our small group here in Crescent City are like those residents of  the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. We get to discern what's happening here and decide what we can do with what we have and who we are,  to be of service in making it our great place to be alive.

I listened to the wisdom from my heart. I was reminded that I am not about recreating those NRM charts. But, most certainly they are a resource along with a rich history with the ICA globally, which I bring with me,  as I BE a  contribution to Crescent City's  bountiful Spirit.

Where is your own Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?  Who are its residents? 

An Empathic Connection is Possible

I can not count the times I have been "accused" of taking something personally.

I admit, I do take on the state of being of those around me. I feel pain that is not mine, both physically and emotionally. I have discovered I know others thoughts as if they are talking to me. I know things - facts - that I only know through the direct encounter and not any prior knowledge.

By reading Don Miguel Ruiz' The Four Agreements, I began to practice them in my own life. I began with noticing the times that I encountered the need to practice one or another of these agreements. In the case of DONT TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY. I began to really be aware that I would be connected in my own body, to an-other-than-myself's pain.  

Right now, my partner is having serious hip pain and I also am having this hip pain.  In my body, it hasn't been feeling like the pain is not the hip bones. It has been around them.  Yesterday, after an MRI, he got the report that it isn't his hip bones, it is his lymph nodes, which are near that part of the body.  I found this worth paying attention to regarding my own diagnostic ability.

I spent years feeling depressed and never could figure out why.  After I was divorced, I was happy and of course attributed it to being free from a really  abusive relationship.  Once I began to be aware that I have built into my being a strong propensity for an empathic connection to another, I understood that it was more a matter of taking on what I have come to know as my ex-husband's chronic depression or whatever it was that kept him so angry with me all the time. Hey, I could blame it all on my free spirit or wild right brain that kept me from really bonding with another, but that would not explain my own always depressed mood swings during those 30 years of marriageand went away within two years of changing accumulated patterns.

I have been able to use this reality, which is so strong in my being, as a spiritual guide in my career in counseling.

I am able to listen to my own body's needs, but do not feel comfortable diagnosing someone else's blocked energy. At the same time,  I know of many medical intuitives who make an empathic connection, and trust their sense of being called to this vocation to diagnose and treat a client.

I have lived with cats who know exactly where to place their bodies for a long healing purr. This leads me to believe the skill is a primal skill available to all people, should they be so drawn to awakening its potential within themselves.

An empathic connection is a deep connection with another, both physically and emotionally.It is like eing a mirror to what is happening in their bodies and emotions, but also feeling it.

Perhaps all empaths are introverts, I don't know, but I am always uncomfortable in a live group of people. I have to sort out what is mine and theirs over and over with each encounter. Needless to say, this virtual way of connecting with people is really easier to handle. But, it is not so real.

Those of us who have this skill all have to learn how to use it, to sort out and to use for the greater good. Those who feel they do not have this skill are simply not aware that they have it. 

Have you had this experience of the empathic connection?  How do you use it?

Transparency of Harley and Taca Belle.

I have been on an incredible journey with these two dogs. They hang out together and roam the neighborhoods daily.  The brown mutt is Harley and the chihuahua we call Taca Belle. She lives on the other side of the village , but walks over to meet up with Harley to spend the day.

The first encounter with this motley pair was during a morning walk with three other women. This pair of canines came from the opposite direction, surrounded us and barked while nipping at our calves and butts.  I gave them a cat treat each hoping they would go away. Instead they focused in on me, cornering me as I found my way onto a stranger's porch. Harley threatened with his barking as any good guard dog  might. The woman who lived in the house came out. I explained to her that I was trapped here, hoped she would forgive me, and the police who I had called would soon arrive.  Well, Chief Johnson finally drove up in his squad car, leaned out the window and said, "Harley, what are you up to now?" and then backed up with the dogs following him. Chief Johnson took the dogs to Harley's and informed the owner of the behavior of his little Pranksters.

On the second encounter, I was walking alone. The two dogs ran up to me, not allowing me to move from the street. I stood perfectly still, slowly dialed 911 and explained that I was being held hostage on the street by two dogs. The operator finally understood me and very soon after, because it is a very small village, Chief Johnson arrived. However, as soon as I called 911, Taca Belle moved slowly to the nearest house and sat down on the porch, giving the impression she lived there and had been there for hours.  At the same time, Harley stole slowly down the driveway of the same house, turned around and sat there with a wondering demeanor.  When he arrived, Chief Johnson first looked at me without saying a word, then we both looked at these innocent looking dogs and burst our laughing at how clever they were.  Nevertheless, Chief Johnson paid a visit to the real owner, reminding him of the leash laws.

 I also ran into the Mayor as I continued my walk and told him what was happening. He offered to go see the owner himself. He did what he said he would do.

the third encounter with these two was on a walk again, with my friends.  The two dogs came toward us from the opposite direction and walked right on past us as if we didn't exist.  Needless to say, we all laughed for a long time as we went on.

The fourth time I saw the two was on my porch. I caught them before they ate the cat food and told them in no uncertain terms were they to continue their pursuit and directed them to leave the porch. They did. I called the police, but they were long gone before he got there. While I was talking to the police, they managed to sneak back onto the porch, finish off the cat food, and beat hell into the bushes.  This time, I went to see the owner myself.  I have not seen the two dogs anywhere  since that visit.

Why I have been so deeply addressed by these encounters with these dogs is a question I was drawn to answer. I was annoyed that these dogs would be running loose. I was impressed with the support I received from the police and with their light-hearted but serious response.  That the dogs knew enough to go through the routine of curbing an intruder (as if the streets were their domain) and were smart enough to try to look innocent when they realized their mistake, really placed me in empathy's squeeze. When they were food hunting, I really felt their primal drive to survive and felt called to solve this problem humanely.

Dogs, like humans, get confused sometimes. Sometimes we claim space as our domain which is not ours. Sometimes we catch ourselves in old patterns which no longer serve our better judgment and we opt to attempt to cover our mistakes with an aura of innocence. Sometimes, we hunger for food or love and nothing will stop us from getting those needs met.

I am considering writing a children's book about Harley and Taca Belle. Their story is transparent to what most of us experience at any given time.

Which encounters have affected your life into a place of empathy in a way that draws you into telling the story?

                                                                                                  

New Dancing Shoes for a New Paradigm

During the month leading up to my 71st birthday, I immersed  myself in putting my house in order - new flooring, clearing space of no longer useful stuff and reorganizing closets.

Then, for a week, I reflected on this past year which was spent primarily healing from open heart surgery, easing on into a daily walk and developing a Qigong  practice.

After spending my 70th birthday alone, the year was then scattered with significant  memorable and precious social events. None of these held the power of my experience each event was to me. I faced the challenge of choosing the most significant event of my 71st year on earth.

Unnable to choose a significant event, I turned to searching among the present seemingly endless turmoil and need for change in the world, I focused on the space probe to Pluto as a sign that perhaps the truth, in all that is happening, might become clear in a way that present contradictions are addressed with resolution.

Finally, every time I traveled to a retreat or conference, my heart protested, threatening to give up on me for trying to give my life to a cause or project or even leading a workshop.  So, I finally listened to my heart's call to enter a reevaluation and regrouping mode, preparing for living perhaps in an emerging new paradigm.

About to close the door on reflecting on this last year, I was gifted with a reminder that the event that holds the significance of the year is important.  I gratefully thank  Evelyn Philbrookfor raising the questions for me to answer. She motivated me to deepen my reflection and complete the process.

I traveled to my favorite space and time in Higher Self, bringing the questions with me. Here is the result:

A road trip up through Georgia with Dick Umble to North Carolina. There Dick reconnected with long time friends and colleagues, Bob and Diane Wallace. They live on the top of what seemed like a cliff to me as we wound back and forth taking hair pin turns, back and forth for 2.8 miles taking 45 munutes to get to our destination.

The whole trip up the "cliff" and especially back down was both exhilerating  and terrifying.  The visit was delightful. Their remodeled home from a cabin into an architectural wonder is unforgettable. The trip down the "cliff"to go out for dinner and back up in the dark with Bob Wallace driving as he had so many times was actually relaxing and enjoyable. The Fall leaves were breathtaking.  And not traveling alone was so refreshing an experience.

We left the Wallace paradise and treked to the ocean to Kure Beach for a visit with my niece and her husband, two sobs, and mother  for a real family weekend.

Regarding the promise I claim for the next year on earth? I have several intents which I have chosen needing further reflection. The one which is a promise I make to myself is to pursue the path of energy healing with further development of a Qigong practice with my intuition eyes   and ears open to the way I will give myself fully to this for the next twenty years or so.

I  hold this promise with an image of wearing new dancing shoes - or in this case sandals.

Shall we dance?

Intention And The Great "Aha"

All too often of recent have I been aware of myself proclaiming that I am ready to leave this earthly plane for good.

  At the same time, this whole melancholic reverie has not been accompanied with any semblance of deep resolve.

Contrarily, irritation over this  human dilemma  was beginning to annoy me

So, I created the intent of discovering what will make me happy enough to dance with great joy for at least twenty years.

The new moon also was in Capricorn . Astrologically this moon is good for creating intents for the rest of the year.

In accordance with this cosmic environment, I focused on several intents, prioritized them, and taped them to the wall in front of my computer to be available for continuing reflection.

That exercise occasioned a new clarity about this notion of being ready to move on. It isn't  about death or doing something different now. It isn't even about a lot of other options that buzz through my thoughts.

It is about welcoming the newness of being alive today and enjoying the challenge of a higher energy, one which I have been cultivating for some time now.

I have been distracted by the national politics and my own heart's health. I really can't do much about the crazy political scene. And Heart is renewed in all realms. Anxiety, angst,  anger, and even anticipation are a waste of good energy.

I am awakening with a resounding aha" to the wonder of a blooming wildflower in the summer sun. The joy of such a simple pleasure is overwhelming and new.

A dilemma exists in the intensity and longevity of the "aha" as I let it carry me into the rest of my life.

This is the essence of creativity.

Life is whole and it is perfect when gratitude accompanies each encounter.

AHA". Here I am having ended all that has been and dance in the arms of creativity with a grateful heart.

Shall we dance?

A Summer Encounter With A Chinese Couple

Early mornings in June are delightful moments to be standing outside. The sun rises directly following 6:30 am. This time of day is just perfect for a walk because the air is filled with the music of the birds and the wind is gentle. It is even possible to walk in the rain this time of the morning.

I enjoy first walking down to the lake's edge to watch the sunrise. I walk for about an hour either before or after I do 20 minutes of Qi Gong meditative exercise which  balances emotions, calming thoughts.

I have been walking with two women who live in the neighborhood.  One went north for a couple of weeks and the other is gone for the summer. So, walking alone, I broke the routine walk route that we had been taking and ventured to the other side of town to the other lake, Lake Stella.  There, I ran into an elderly Chinese couple  doing exercises. The first day we simply greeted each other. The second day I joined them for exercise. Their gestures let me know I was welcome to do so. We met for exercise for three weeks. They speak no English.

Figuring out how to have a conversation took many days. My smartphone translator was primitive. We tried sign language, but charades is not our strong suit. Finally, I typed out questions on my computer translator and brought the printed copy for them to read. They brought back the answers the next day - written in Chinese.  Long story short, I asked every Oriental person I ran into if they were literate in Mandarin. (I was able to discern from what they said that they were from Hunan Province).

A salesperson at a store in Palatka, twenty-five miles up the road,  told me she teaches Chinese to children and agreed to translate via email and eventually on the phone. The Oriental restaurant in Crescent City is managed by the couple's grandson With these two sources, I learned names, length of stay, origins, ages, grandchildredn (!!), etc.

When I worked at a training school in a village in Kenya, I talked with the local women by our hand gestures. I also became aware of strong telepathic images which facilitated our ability to communicate. Remembering this, I was mindful of the images evoked when Mr. or Mrs. Xiang talked to me. I am sure I got the gist of most of it.  This, I would like to point out, is an ancient ability recovered and am grateful to be able to access.

Each day we arrived at the pavilion by the lake for an hour of physical exercise. Mr. and Mrs. Xiang are also, like myself, age appropriately agile. They had a tape recorder and cassette and I'm pretty sure the exercise is a form of Tai Chi and/or Qi Gong. The cardiac/aerobic is gentle and no muscle, joint, or pressure point is ignored. The hour passed gently like a flowing brook. The name on the cassette box is Ahma and the rest is in Chinese. I have not been able to find anything just like it.  Each day they would reveal more about the healing qualities of one or other exercise in the routine.

On the morning we were finally able to communicate with our translator on the phone, I learned that was their last day of exercise and would be heading back to Las Vegas where they lived with one of their children and family. We shared our gratitude for having met and sharing this exercise time. As we parted they said we would meet again next year this time. We smiled as friends, and waved as we walkedt on in separate directions.

Now I am walking alone again in the morning before or after twenty minutes of  Qi Gong. Doing exercises each morning with this lovely couple was a very important event of this summer in Crescent City. The best part was the venture into communicating with each other.

I am deeply addressed by the difficulty in communication among cultures. To follow through requires a willingness and a willing to communicate in order to become acquainted as well as to really respect each other. Effort is required and lots of patience. I could have just showed up every day. We could have smiled and exercised and waved good-bye. I could have avoided any other interaction and life would have gone on. But, life is so much richer by these deeper connections.

I can not help but wonder how in the world the many cultures and perspectives on this planet are ever going to really achieve any understanding, respect, tolerance and empathy in order to peacefully co-exist.

What does our future require of us?