- Corner Lounging. Police picked us up more times than I can remember simply for hanging out and making a little too much noise, perhaps, with a little too much profanity.
- I didn’t. Use profanity. Not much. And when I did, I think it meant something. Not like today, when the “F” word is bantered around too freely. And way too often. And, that’s in so-called “polite society.”
Monthly Archives: August 2010
Radio Plays to My No. 1 Heart’s Desire
Music touched an emotional chord in me that may have been different from most folks.
Abraham, Martin & John Live On Within
Rain pours on me outside, while soft music warms me on the inside. “Abraham, Martin, and John,” the song, plays from this relatively new gadget called a portable, hand-held, transistor radio.
Guest Post’s Embarrassing Announcement
What’s the difference between Shame and Embarrassment? Are they joined at the hip? Like twins?
The shame of it all starts an upward ascent
Be careful what you wish for. You could get your heart’s desire and wish you had never asked for it in the first place.
Love Streams in All Good Consciousness
How do I explain the feelings that have come “over me?” They’re like ocean waves ebbing and flowing in each breath.
In and out. To and fro. You and I. Somehow all connected. Continue reading
College Life repeats itself each generation
Sat next to a long hair, skinny, “Hippie” guy at an orientation in a community college yesterday, and felt thrown back to a time years ago, sitting cross-legged on the floor across from a similar fellow wondering what the hell I was doing there.
Attract Them to a Higher Calling in Life
St. Michael strikes and heals all at once
I felt like Alice falling in the hole after chasing a White Rabbit. But, falling “upwards” defying the laws of Gravity and Rational Sense.
Act of Contrition Helps Regain My Purity
Got Blanket Absolution yesterday. And, it felt so good, I became a 12-year-old again. Ready to face the world with a clear conscious and a pure heart.
I See You for the Very First Time, Don’t I?
- I see You more and more each day. All I need do, is look for You. Kinda scrunch up my mind a bit, squint, and let my Self go.
Try to “feel” You. And I do! All Blessed You. In just the right amount to fill a soul that wishes it were bigger, larger to contain more and more of Your Love that’s omnipresent, all around me. And in me.
I ‘intend’ nothing but positive bestowals
How do you explain “unexplainable” events?
Willie, 20 years later, I still mourn you
Although you “passed on” after your 17th birthday, you’ll remain alive for me forever. I see you in my dreams. I “feel” your presence as I walk with you, watch you, and hear the footsteps on the steps leading from the dining room to the bedroom upstairs.
Suffocate? Let go of control & open up self
Grace suffocated and I retaliated by smashing my ego to help free up her passageway during group meditation this morning.
Pain endures from struggles in a ‘Back’ Life
The pain feels like someone thrust a spear in my back. That I was in battle. At the city of Troy. Fighting with fellow Greeks for the foolish prize of a minor King’s run-a-way, but lovely, wife, Helen. She with a face that will launch a thousand ships.
Hawk carries HSPs to their highest ideals
The hawk glides across the sky, soaring high above us as the first person to notice shouts, “there’s one.” Like children, we stare toward the heavens, at the beautiful blue sky. A normally humid August has graced us with a mild and glorious summer day, blending light breezes and the scent of flowers that drift our way from below the wooden platform we look out from.
Continue reading
School boss drives Vietnam veteran nuts
Felt I was back in war maneuvering through a mine field called the new educational system yesterday.
Continue readingUnexplained ‘Pull’ leading me back Home
A gentle “pull” manifested in my Life recently. I noticed it last night while driving and wanted no more than to live in each passing moment.
‘I confess!’ I cut school with Franny O
I’m going to confess. I played hooky in seventh grade and refused to “squeal” on the kid I stayed out of class with that day.
Nature Provides Bird’s Eye View of Living
There’s a true “pecking order” that’s developing in my back yard. And all I have to do is be patient and watch it unfold moment by moment.
Continue reading
Kabbalah ‘Receiving’ Helps Me in ‘Giving’
You can’t make promotions your life’s goal
You can keep the promotion. Wouldn’t take it, even if offered. Not if I have to make “achievements” my aim, to set a new “goal” in Life.
“Start Over’ the instant you feel a need to
Start over. That’s all I gotta do . . . Say it to myself and simply “START OVER!”
Lying in bed with one crazy, mixed up thought after another, I told myself to “start over.” Did not know what I meant. But I did mean it.
Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers
(This story was created in October 2009 but not published in its entirety until now.)
It’s just like heaven . . . Being here with you . . . You’re like an Angel. Too good to be true. When You are near me. My heart skips a beat. I can hardly stand on. My own two feet. Because I Love You; I Love You, I Do. ‘Angel Baby’. My ‘Angel Baby’. Oh, Ooh, I Love You, Oh, Ooh, I Do . . . No One Could Love You . . . Like I Do!
Union Activity Draws This Reporter Away
(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, Angels Part V, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
Career Paths Change Here and There
I also got involved with the Newspaper Guild and our local at the newspaper level. I took part in union negotiations, usually being one of the lone holdouts to ensure that some clerk or underpaid dispatcher could get a few extra dollars in their paycheck. I enjoyed the give and take and the high drama that developed at contract time. Will there be a strike? How much is the company willing to contribute to the pension? Will there be “givebacks” this time? How secure will I be with a new contract?
College Major Guided By a Little Mistake
(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part IV, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
What happened in the Vietnam War is another story, but my next Angel appeared as a burly Scottish neighbor of my parents, who had moved from the inner city of Philadelphia to one of its suburbs, Wayne, Pa. “What will you major in at college, Laddy?” the neighbor asked when I visited my folks advising them that I would be using their address to attend the Delaware County Community College. (I lived outside the county and would have had to pay double the amount if I didn’t fudge the location of my domicile.)
Shared My Music with a Younger Group
(Originally Cont’d from Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part III, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
‘Oldies‘ Pave Way for My Singing Rock Group
I got exposed to “Oldies but Goodies” in my late teenage years. That’s when I started to recruit guys my age, none of whom had been exposed to the Black neighborhoods where Jackie Toy and I met others to sing. I introduced them to “oldies” they had never heard of, particularly from their mostly Lilly White AM Radio Stations like WIBG or WIP.
Plato’s Alegory Calls to Me in the War Zone
Opening to Philosophy in a Bombed-Out Bunker
(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part VII, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
In a few days, my subconscious worked over my dream of Socrates. I can remember and once again say the name of the second gentleman as none other than Plato, the Greek teacher who dealt with reality, with the spirit, and with life beyond what our senses simply pick up.
Criminal Attorney Practice Calls Out to Me
Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part VI, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
Experience Begins in the Courtroom
But by then, I had my first taste of courtroom advocacy and man did I become energized! Trial work involved cross-examination, closing arguments, and the ability to “argue” in front of a captive audience. Paul Messing, my advocacy instructor, became my next Angel when he directed me into becoming a “litigator,” presenting me with the award of “Barrister” for the best advocate and providing an “in” for an interview with the Philadelphia Defender Association, which had just been named the best in the country.
Angel Helps Me to Harmonize in a Group
Angels II (Originally continued on Oct.3, 2009, from Angels, Appear as Earthly Messengers)
Being In the Moment is Healthy for Everyone
I had suffered from a cold when I closed my eyes and settled into my seat for meditation. I was hurting and aching from the illness, perhaps even having a slight fever, when I rapidly descended into a deep zone. My thoughts came to a stop, my shoulders, neck, and other parts of a tense body grew limp and thoroughly relaxed. I slowly felt the mind and the body joining in a “slow down,” where I would find that state of nothingness that allows me to simply Be in The Moment.
Concealing & finding Self –a life-long effort
Hello! Anybody here? It sure is dark inside. Like a huge cavern with hardly any light.
Falling in love with the Love of Your Life
Fell head over heels in love the past few weeks. Didn’t want to do it. Had always gotten “hurt” in relationships, knowing from the start they’d come to an end one day. Love seemed to change that way. To peter out. End not with a “bang,” but with a “whimper.”
Nysiros holds secrets of life and death
I’ll never know what drove Anthoula to take her own life.
Angels re-enter when you’re open to ’em
I started seeing angels again. No, hold off on the straight jacket, don’t reserve a room at an asylum. I’m not totally crazy. Yet.
‘Open your eyes’ to journey of Lifetime
The snake slithered along the bed of the forest, winding its way beneath a pine tree. Climbing upwards, it twirled around the trunk, moving ever so slowly, centimeter after centimeter, as it sought the “higher ground” where it could shimmy onto a tree branch and make its way closer to my eye level.
Contoveros 