“New Consciousness – the evolutionary phenomenological awareness that individual ‘I’ consciousness is the primal Universal Oneness experienced through unique filters and adjectives.”

That’s what I just wrote on a neurological test study form that asked if I meditate and if so, what kind of meditation do I do.  It took me a while to come up with that, trying to make it clear, trying to keep it short, changing and editing as I went, but, you know, big words aside, that might not be a bad little 10 second elevator pitch for what it’s all about.  Ever better.

peace…………ag

I can’t remember when congressional hearings were such fodder for gatherings at the local tavern… but these days they are.  Drink in hand, we take off from work and sit on the edge of our pub seats, not hoping to see our team to win the championship, but waiting to hear how the current official on the hot seat will deflect the senator’s questions. And we watch the late night talk shows and groan at the embarrassing but all too true jokes made about those who run our government.  Other than Watergate, at least in my memory, never has the craziness in Washington grabbed the attention of the masses like it has since #IdiotTrump has become president.  Wish us luck.

peace………….ag

Who would have thunk it, but today I turn 77.  This little piece of meat, this combination of loving thoughts and snarky comments, this fabulous machine that can take all kinds of inputs from Trader Joe’s and turn them into usable fertilizer, this musician, writer, husband, father, grandfather, yogi, chaplain, Scrabble player, cribbage player, and baseball fan is another year older.  Who would have thunk it?

Will there be any difference?  Will I be nicer, or kinder, or more worthy of taking up space on the planet?  This time next year, if I make it that far, will someone somewhere be grateful that I did? That’s hard to say.  I do know that I will continue living according to my three rules of life and we’ll just have to see where it comes out.  1. Be Happy.  2. Be Kind.  3. That’s It.  How bad can that be?

peace……….ag

I just signed an online petition, along with at least a half a million other people, that says “We, the undersigned people of the United States of America, commit to mitigating climate change and sign onto the Paris climate change agreement. ”  See… #IdiotTrump is bringing us all together, just like he is supposed to do.   [I’ve included the link below in case you want to sign it, too.]

peace………….ag

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/we-the-people-sign-onto?source=s.em.mt&r_by=3799872

So today, Pres. Trump said that the United States will back out of the Paris Accord limiting carbon emissions in order to stop global warming.  He either doesn’t understand the concept or he feels that economic interests, particularly his own, are worth risking the future of the planet.  It’s truly amazing that one person can have so much power and the ability to negate what took years of work and negotiation from so many other people to achieve.

Equally interesting is the fact that when the next president comes into office and wishes to renew our connection with the rest of the world, we will no longer be in the forefront of the anti global-warming effort, but will have to sit in the back of the room watching as others design and run the show.  Far from Making America Great Again, #IdiotTrump has taken America down a notch on the world stage. Make America An Outsider might be a good slogan for what he has done for us on the international stage.

Meanwhile, I will continue to look for the positive in his presidency.  Causing the average person to look for and find strength within one’s own being is a good place to start.

peace…………ag

The big change has just been made on our website.  The old administrator has left, and with the help of my wife and my son, both of whom know how to work with websites better than I do, I have taken over, and will run things from here.  I will have to learn WordPress, will have to learn how to make things look on line the way they look in my head, and how to be patient with computers who don’t always want to do things the way I want them to do.  It is a challenge but worth the effort.  There is a lot to share with you, on a personal level, on a national level, and on a cosmic level.  I will give it my best shot.  Looking back years from now, I hope it will have proved to be of value.

peace…………ag

Well, whether you missed me or not, I’m back!  The blog has been moved to a new host and all we lost was one post and several weeks.  I can’t even remember what was said in that post, except an affirmation that I’m committing myself to getting this work out there this year one way or another. So hang on, here we go again.  By the way, on my hospice rounds today I ran into one of those inspirational quotes in a nursing home elevator that went something like this.  “You never know just how much is possible until you cross the boundary into the impossible.”   Let’s review this a year from now and see if we’ve crossed over or not.

peace…………ag

I guess that’s what keeps us going… those unexpected bumps in the road that pop up in our lives and poof!… we’re suddenly headed off in a new and unexpected direction.  Do we let them control us or do we reach for the reins and get back on course?  That, my friends, is the important question.  Who is in control after all?  I’m sure I’ve shared this before, but it’s worth retelling… the time my wife asked a psychic whether those roadblocks in life were signs to turn back or obstacles to be overcome.  They are, said the psychic, whatever you want them to be.

peace………ag

So about three months ago I lost a bracelet that I had fashioned and had been wearing daily.  It had special meaning for me because I had actually made two of them and given one to a hospice patient of mine whom I had gotten very close to.  At his funeral, I saw that his son was now wearing it.  So clearly at least two people think of Reggie when they see the bracelet.  Anyway, after losing it on a shopping trip to Trader Joe’s, (I even checked with their lost and found), I took a Buddhist approach of non-attachment and let it go, opting to wear another one that I had purchased at a street fair years earlier.  Then today, while shopping at TJ’s I grabbed a shopping bag that I haven’t used for a while, and there it was, lying inside right where it landed when it fell off on that long ago shopping trip. Thank you.  Unexpected pleasures are really great.

peace……..ag