Jobs have a way of defining us. We become “the job,” or rather grow into what we perceive to be the “ideal performer“ of that job. Whether we like it or not. The job. Or ourselves.  Continue reading
Author Archives: contoveros
Some lessons go down easier than others
My God, when will this pain end?
Reporting the News takes Courage & Trust
Most of what I learned about journalism came from observing a true crime reporter named Michael Sangiacomo.
Utopia Exists in a Mere Change of Focus
Another Reality exists within the here and now, if I can disengage and step out of the World that I am sleep-walking in.
Short Stature Grows Larger With Love
Mr. Nice Guy Wins, but Loses in the End
I’ve had to push you from my mind, to save my mind. Get you out of my Life to live my Life.
A Taste of Heaven offered Here on Earth
Pizza Pie and a Chocolate Milkshake.
Each drew me like an oasis to a man walking alone in a desert.
Meditation helps Writer find a Gem Within
The excitement would start while half asleep, tossing and turning, waiting for morning to jump out of bed, freshen up, and make my way downstairs to discover my latest surprise.
Dance with Achilles Contoveros again
“To Dance with My Father Again.”
Hard To Believe It Got Up for TV Viewing
“It’s hard to get up for it, sometimes.”
Injustice Should Make Us All ‘Go Berserk’
“Going Berserk” has always had a wicked appeal to me.
Swimming Makes the Heart ‘Go’ Fonder
“Smile, breathe and go slowly”~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Can A Wrong Ever Serve Into A Right?
“Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman.”
Never thought an affair I had with a married woman before turning 21 would qualify for “conduct unbecoming,” but looking back, I see how conflicted parties to such an act could become.
Do not disturb a man who’s sweating it out
Growled like a dog at a guy making noise in a sauna I was meditating in Tuesday.
Going AWOL helps a boy grow into a man
Went AWOL while a private in the US Army in 1968
Continue reading500th milestone within October 1st reach
Lord, I’m One, Lord, I’m Two, Lord, I’m Three, Lord, I’m Four,
Lord, I’m Five Hundred Miles
Away from Home. Continue reading
Conceal the Word until All are Ready for It
Wearing a chest full of ribbons on a khaki-colored shirt with Russian-like epaulets on the shoulders, I grew lots of attention at the Russian Appreciation Day at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia yesterday.
Truth once hidden usually surfaces later
“State Trooper Using Hypnosis for Investigation“
That was the headline for one of the strangest cases I ever reported.
Seeking the ‘Bliss Queen’ in Philadelphia
I wanted so much to be the Queen’s Concert.
But at what age? What stage of her life called out to me the most, as we, the audience members, watched her grow into a Spiritual goddess, one I desired to be like, to become with as One?
Buy yourself a friend – read his good word
“Make yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.”
— Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya
The Great Awakening can be hard on a guy
Ashamed. Impure. Dirty.
All these feelings flashed through me as I slowly came out of what seemed like a trance, halfway between sleep and wakefulness, only to notice growth at a part of my body where there was none before.
Swimming meditation floats troubles away
Swimming meditation can work. You heard it here first. One can “nudge” out most thoughts and focus on the “here and now” as you swim one lap after another. I did.
Saying ‘I Love You’ Over & Over Again!
“I love you” was not in the way you said it, but how you said it.
Recovering from my road rage confession
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have cursed out drivers on the open highway and prayed their mothers had never conceived them. In or at of wedlock, those dirty b . . . . . .
You’re ‘Over the Hill,’ Once You Hit Forty
Requested a dollar coffee at a Burger King last night and the Gidget-like youngster asked if she could serve a “Senior.”
Living like I’m one of ‘All God’s Creatures’
I dove into a World of Make Believe, changing from one past life to another while underwater and on land yesterday.
Can Hell Actually Be Just ‘Other People?’
Felt disconnected from the World as I knew it yesterday.
A tough road makes journey a little easier
When my father spoke Greek with the disciplinarian of the Catholic High School where I played hooky at age 14, I thought I had it made.
Continue readingImpeachment turns a loser into a winner
Each day for twenty years, the spirit of Don Quixote welcomed me into my law office. This picture hung above my desk reminding me that it was the “impossible cases” a good public defender relished. The ones you didn’t expect to win, but somehow, now and then, you’d convince a jury to see the facts your way, which in most cases, was the right way.
Continue readingBestowing spirit & essence to a new friend
I told someone I’d give up my life for them. And, I meant it. Continue reading
Forgive warrior’s defense of the sensitive
You invited me to your House, and I broke confidence in you.
Love Thy Neighbor: Don’t burn his book
Heard some Christian minister was planning to set fire to a Muslim Holy Book, the Quran, to mark the Anniversary of 9-11 this Saturday, September 11, 2010.
Walk a Labyrinth full with love & no desire
All I want to do, is Give. Not Take. Continue reading
Amy, You Smile & I find Pure Paradise!
Thank You Amy. Let the Good Times Roll!
Sit and do nothing, but only do it better
Sit and do Nothing — Better.
You don’t know how hard this is for me. To do nothing! Forget about the better part. The word “better“ implies you’ve been able to do “nothing” sometime in the past. Or that you can do nothing “better” than someone else.
Pitching pennies provides pinch per police
Street Corner Society Beckoned to Me
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. 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.
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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. Continue reading
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.
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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.
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Kabbalah ‘Receiving’ Helps Me in ‘Giving’
How can I divert pleasure I “receive” into pleasure I can “give?”
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!”
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 Both Here and There
Misunderstandings Guide Me thru School
(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part IV, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
College Major Guided By a Mistake
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 a 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)
Criminal Attorney Practice Calls Out to Me
Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part VI, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)
Experience Actually Starts in the Courtroom
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
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 a Journey of a 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.
Women Elevate all our Desire for God
Did the Creator make a mistake in His design of women’s “purpose?“
Can ‘spiritual indigestion’ be all that bad?
Thought I was dying Monday morning.
Imagine how to ‘Copy’ & ‘Paste’ a Graphic
(How to insert graphics into your Writing)
So, you want to know how to add a “picture” to the story?
Accident leads to a fowl, self-discovery
Hearing the screech of tires, I react quickly. Push foot to the brake and veer to the right of the car in front of me.
Weekend Euphoria Needs Time To Set
The Greatest Weekend — No. II
* Uncertain if my true love would ever be mine, I fell to my knees . . . praying for her affection. It was . . . a Sunday.
When Coincidence Occurs, Look Out & In!
Uncanny coincidences kept cropping up yesterday as I attended a gathering of one of those “Meet-Up” groups.
Conspiracy of Love to Heal Us All, Now!
Glenda “laid hands” on me; I lost track of who I was and why!
‘Five Jaunts’ Create a Life-Long Harmony
The bottle of Listerine spilled, and the car smelled of antiseptic. A ‘57 Chevy should never suffer such an indignation.
Monkey See, and, Alas, Monkey Will Do!
The fool showed up uninvited to the Wildwood, NJ, beach house and created a mess good folk hardly talk about now-a-days. He sat “Indian style” on the living room rug with Billy Kane, both about the same age, 18 to 19. There were two or three other guys drinking beer as Billy passed ‘em around.
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Spiritual wars should end at a dinner table
Psalm 46:
9 — He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 — Be still and know that I am God.
‘None else besides Him,’ ‘none besides me!’
“There is none else besides Him.”
Looking for Self among all the wrong cards
Who am I? Am I this body, this mind, this soul? Perhaps, all three?
Even on bad days, music can lift me higher
“The Crossing” filled me with sounds of the Rapture last night as I surrendered to the harmonies some 25 voices offered me on entering Heaven. Continue reading
Won’t let go until animal instinct tells me to
My jaws clamp down, insuring I won’t let go of what I just uncovered. It’s taken me for what seems forever to get my teeth around it, and I won’t give up without a fight. Even if I get kicked. Again. Square in the face where it hurts, but I’ll get over it.
To Helen of T, whose Heart Just Loves
I know of what you speak, about your ache.
I close my eyes and I feel the longing, the yearning that cannot be quenched, no matter what liquid I try to fill myself with. It’s just a substitute, a “pretender” that does little if anything to cool the fire, the pulsating magma that enflames a wound that seems never to heal in a million years.
Hello! What would God do if He was you?
Wouldn’t it be great to make a phone call and ask a receptionist to put you through to the Creator? The next time you have a problem, and you want to do the right thing, you could simply dial “G . . . O . . . D” long distance.
Oleg guides me on a “Make ‘Believe’ ” path
Once Upon a Time . . .
I delete persons withholding ID from me
Unknown Writer Gets Kicked Out of My Mail
Unconditional Love; Language we all Know
(The baby looked up and, for the first time, acknowledged the Presence of another Being.
Labyrinth opens a hidden maze inside me
Walked a Labyrinth and stepped back into the Vietnam War last night.
Trouble is . . . I liked it. Did not want to leave the maze despite what lay ahead. Strangely, I felt “safe” there. Secure in my “skills.” Didn’t want to come home. Just like years earlier.
See you in a ‘next life’ Sombitch Rooster
(Cont’d from series on a-mean-rooster)
Dropped Sombitch Rooster off in a wooded area near a weed and gravel-covered path leading to an Urban Homestead with rows of corn in what appeared to be a good-sized farm enclosed by a six-foot “mesh” fence and a locked gate.
Animals feel freed after Rooster’s absence
An eerie silence greeted me as I opened my bathroom door, stepped inside, and looked at the window facing the yard. I had just woken up. This, the first morning without a rooster in my daily life.
Always keep an eye out for mean roosters
He flew at my head and clawed at my eye. Blood seeped out the left side of the nose, cheek, and the right ear, where the rooster attacked, getting in one last “lick” at me.
Speaking truth ain’t easy but always right
“What’s wrong with the Truth?” the White Knight asked.
Reading and Writing Open Different Ways
Who are we but a bunch of words? Letters strung together, broken up in efforts to make sense of a message we try to convey.
Revenge could change, once ‘you’ change
Never thought “revenge“ had anything good to say about itself. It’s a negative trait. Falls in with Anger, Rage and “getting even.”
Soft Pretzels, a Philadelphia Comfort Food
“You want mutard?,” the Pretzel Man would ask as he took your nickel and broke off three little “figure eight” soft pretzels. “Yes,” I’d say, mouthwatering for a topping that would make Philadelphia soft pretzels one of the great snacks of the Western World.
Step into a reality governed only by ‘Now’
Imagine there were Two Realities
Taking First Steps on the Kabbalah Path
Let me give all of my Blog post readers a hint at what my next Spiritual Journey will Involve:
Continue readingShiatsu workout straightens out back & Chi
Back talk. Anyone experiencing pain might know where I’m headed. My back is talking loud and clear, and no matter what I do, I can’t shut it up.
