After he was mugged in the Subway…

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

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“You can Argue with Facts but you can’t Argue with Feelings” Carla Neff Gordan

Carla Neff Gordan was the most gifted intuitive that I ever met.  She was the real thing. We met in the Middle 1980’s and over time became very close. She spent many days at our home giving workshops and working with clients. Carla was very fond of saying: “You can Argue with Facts but you can’t Argue with Feelings.” To quote her site Walk in Love, “Many philosophies recognize the presence of an angel, guardian angel or guides.  Far fewer recognize, as the Guides taught through Carla, that every person has a guide – someone who loves and inspires them on their journey while they are in earth.  These Guides are highly evolved spiritual beings who have graduated from the earth plane and therefore are truly able to be in a mentoring or guiding role with those who are still in the midst of their earth journey.”

The Way to Happiness…

Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”

~ Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
The Power of Positive Thinking – US pastor, Marble Collegiate Church, NYC, author, The Power of Positive Thinking ‘52

6 Miles High, Heading West at 550MPH

I love to fly and not just to get away and go somewhere else.  It’s about the height and velocity. It creates/unleashes a level of creativity that I have a hard time garnering on the ground. Charles Ledbetter, Theosophical write of the early 20^th century said that “Most of our thoughts are not even our own”.  This is both a profound insight to some and a profound excuse for others. Growing up in a high density urban area, I was always bothered on a subtle mental level by the unending bombardment of thoughts around me. When I moved to Arizona in the late 70’s I experienced the expansion and solitude of the Desert. I was left alone with my own thoughts. No excuses, just my thoughts, just the manifestation of my sub-conscious breaking the surface of the conscious mind. Can’t blame the ethereal influences of other human’s densifying the ether’s. Just me and the land.  Dennis Adams used to say,“It’s never outside of yourself.” I have found this to be profound simplicity. Like my favorite quote from my favorite 1970’s Movie Buckaroo Bonsai, “Where ever you go…there you are…” My Dad used to say the same thing, “You take your dirty laundry wherever you go.” SO once you separate the thoughts that aren’t yours from what is, you are left with your stuff…positive and negative, unbounded unconditional love and judgment..  Here is Personal responsibility whacking my consciousness like a 2×4. Dang it’s me, my thoughts, my creation…wherever I go it’s me manifesting my totality. I accept that, it’s just that sometimes I do need the rarefied space of space to stimulate some highly creative moods….

“The Pain of Discipline vs the Pain of Regret…Choose one” Jim Britt

In 1975 I worked as a Medical Photographer at a Hospital in Canada. I was on the cancer ward one day  when I met a man who had cancer throughout his mouth, lips, esophagus and lungs. He had a tracheotomy, yet to my astonishment, he was smoking a cigarette through the trac hole. I was mortified at the sight. Seeing my excitation (horrification), the man called me over. His voice was raspy, low and guttural. He grabbed me by the sleeve and looked deep into my eyes and said in almost a whisper, “Son, don‘t smoke.” Tears filled both of our eyes. I am still moved by the memory…
This lesson has been a guiding principle in my personal health care. I do not want to die in a hospital with tubes coming out of me.  As you will see in my upcoming posts,  I deeply believe in personal responsibility.