Carly Simon sang it . . .
The Heinz ketchup bottle illustrated what it could look like . . .
Category Archives: healing
Collegeville Opens My Muse For Writing
Collegeville may or may not have been named after a religious school called “Ursinus” in the central part of Montgomery County. . . Or some long ago seminary school. I really don’t know, but I rode through it when traveling to one of the last outdoor movie theatres, the one located in Limerick, Pa, a drive-in movie just outside of Pottstown.  Continue reading
Words Prompt Me to Share Love of Music
I heard a banjo strum as I fed the birds outside near the plum tree in my yard this morning. Banjo? Strumming? Where could that have come from, I wondered?
Continue reading‘Nothing’ found when seeking Love within!
I went within and felt nothing this morning. I knew this day would come, but I thought I would put it off until the day I’d die. Yes, I thought I’d have enough juice within to tell my story until I took that last breath.
But Life fooled me. It hit me upside the head, showing me, you can’t take anything for granted. All things are subject to change. All phenomena are transitory, all are impermanent. The only permanence that exists is Love I believe that energizes us and the world we all live in. Continue reading
Name three things that inspire a better you
Day 7 – Total Balance Is Natural Balance
Create a life of magical renewal with Love
If I had a magic wand, I would wave it and remove all of the hate in our land. It would take away the hurt all felt throughout the ages of man from the beginning of time, when Cain killed his brother, and when a stupid Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a lousy bowl of soup.  Continue reading
Letter to Another Galaxy & All Friendly ETs
Love makes our world go ‘round. It provides the essence of all that exists in our solar system. It created what our scientists call the “Big Bang,” and it continues to expand even though we are unable to see it with our limited vision.
Weight loss found in ‘lightening’ myself & I
One doesn’t have to go on a diet to lose the excess weight of a lifetime of living. All you need do is to lighten your mind, get rid of burdens carried from childhood when the trauma of difficulties and missteps caused you to stumble and lose faith in your God-given direction.
Message from lower world: lighten burden
My host in Freiburg, Germany, escorted me and her husband on a shamanic journey as we lay on the carpeted floor in their guest room, and she guided us to the “lower world.” She drummed for a good 15 minutes, never letting up the beat as she walked around us, covered by blankets with eyes closed and our hearts open.  Continue reading
PTSD undergoes a Shamanistic treatment
The Shaman applied pressure with his fingers and thumbs to the side, back, and front of my skull. He told me to let him know if he caused me any pain.
The back of the heart offers ‘Will to Love’
We’ve all experienced love in one form or another. Most remember the romantic love that may have flourished when we were young and felt the longing to receive the touch of love from another person.
Calm the wandering mind & feel happiness
A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind Continue reading
Journey into self opens possibilities for me
Guided Meditation Provides Understanding
Continue readingThe ‘Shadow’ helps in Spiritual Maturation
What is Healing?
Obstacles to German retreat removed now
I feel like the character in a comic strip who has had a cloud over his head with nothing but calamities and obstacles blocking his every move. No matter what he did, he’d be thrown off stride, be it from a torrential rainfall or an avalanche along a sunshine-filled pathway.  Continue reading
Best sleep in years follows head treatment
I got the best sleep I’ve had in years last night and I owe it all to the treatments I have received for not only what ails me, but what has been blocking my lower brain from connecting with my upper brain.
Nothing has helped my back pains now
I felt nothing this morning.
For the past five days, nothing greeted me when I got out of bed.
Home where I grew up still haunts my mind
I grew up in a two-story row house in North Philadelphia in a mixed neighborhood where we played in front of the fireplug and got ice from old ice trucks that made their way up the tiny one-way street. Continue reading
Fun times await all who can be a kid again
I’m Having Fun!
Universe is Conspiring to Guide All of Us
When will I ever learn to trust the Universe?
When will I develop enough faith to believe things happen for my well-being? And when can I truly trust my instincts and live more peacefully in tune with what the Cosmos is manifesting just for me ? Continue reading
‘Singer of Truth’ is Contoveros’ Aspiration
The word, “Contoveros” in Latin means “Singer of Truth.” I didn’t know that as a child, when I learned that it was my father’s real last name. Someone at Ellis Island shortened it to “Contos.” One of my wives once told me that the new word means “Short.” Continue reading
The Ice Man Cometh for Me and for Thee
It was the ice on the truck that beckoned to me when I was six years old and playing on the one-way street near my home in North Philadelphia. Continue reading
Thinking of the Best Way to Speak to You
“Think before You Speak” reads the sign that my new best friend gave me for Christmas. She thought of me when she saw it, she said. She knew how many problems I had had with boundaries. Or, rather, lack of boundaries.  Continue reading
Reiki dream opens me to be ‘truth-telling’
Reiki, the universal life energy, opened me to one of the most vivid dreams of my life last night. And, as my Reiki teacher once told me, “Write down your dreams . . . There could be a message in store for you.”  Continue reading
Peace shared throughout the world today
“What am I doing here?” I asked myself as I sat in a cushioned chair with some 50 other people early this morning on the last day of 2015. I was here at the invitation of a woman I hardly knew, a minister, who enticed me to join the world in a planet-wide prayer for peace.  Continue reading
‘Post-Traumatic Growth’ can help you heal
I experienced something scientists have labeled “Post-Traumatic Growth” twice in my life and some forty years apart. Both led to major changes in my life and a new look at life like I never had imagined it to be.  Continue reading
Inner Being is My Winter Solstice Dream
“Inner Being” is a State of Mind
Mourning Allison’s Sister with Joyful Love
I didn’t know how much joy there could be in grief until sorrow encompassed me and a warm flow of unconditional love spread throughout my entire being. Someone I knew experienced a death in her family and it hit me like a proverbial ton of bricks when I learned of her demise. Continue reading
Owning the Mental Illness Amongst Us
Mental illness scares the shit out of me. The very term conjures up images of some crazed guy with wild, straggly hair and a demon-like smile of malevolence. Steven King kind of comes to mind when I think of someone who might be a little touched in the head. A Stephen King character, that is. Not Stephen King.  Continue reading
How did we choose the journey we’re on?
I would love to write a book about how people actually came to the current journey they’re on.
‘Healthy Brain, Healthy Living’ Mystifies
I know very little about New Age holistic energy and healing. Yet, I believe that some force beyond my understanding has arisen in my life and I’ve become the beneficiary of something mystical.  Continue reading
‘Healing the Western Soul’ heals & inspires
When was the last time you read a book where you had to stop to digest what you just took in because you wanted to savor what you felt?
‘I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace’
Why is it that I find myself sticking my foot into my mouth every time something good comes my way? Why do I screw things up so badly? What curse have I created in some past life for me to resolve through some kind of karmic debt that I must repay in this lifetime?  Continue reading
‘Never touch the root of evil,’ Francis said
Saint Francis of Assisi believed so strongly that money was the root of all evil that he had forbidden his followers to ever handle it.
What I believe will enhance my life forever
I believe that all of us are placed on this earth for a purpose, and the aim for us in life is to find out what that purpose is!
My ‘Vietnam War Recall’ starts tomorrow
“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, and more desolation. Some of these young men think that war is all glory but let me say . . . ”War is All Hell!”
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American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman
Taps by my Emotional Freedom Technique
If you haven’t tried it, you ought to Google “EFT” and see if such a technique could help with whatever might ail you today!
Opening myself through group awareness
I grew when meeting four people on Monday who helped me expand my consciousness in ways I had never known existed before. Someone introduced me to the Fifth Dimension, while another invited me to a New Age exhibition in Bucks County, where light-workers of all shapes and sizes would introduce newbies like me to new and exciting pathways to Nirvana.  Continue reading
Hoarding Ends at Contoveros Household
It’s finally over — the Big Dump has ended! A thousand and one useless items I’ve been hoarding for 30 some years got picked up and hauled away.
9-11 is Our Generation’s ‘Day Of Infamy’
Like December 7th, 1941, the date of “9-11” will go down in American history as a new generation’s Day of Infamy.
Recalling love in a 30-yr-old 1-night stand
You wanted more, and I couldn’t give it to you. I was seeking love, romance, and someone I could be committed to. You simply saw me as a “one-night stand.” Continue reading
Joe Hill never died; he went on to organize!
On this Labor Day weekend, I’d like to offer the song “Joe Hill” to all my union-supporting friends and share the story of the man who helped me as a union organizer in what seems like another lifetime ago. Continue reading
Songs offered hope to Vietnam War grunts
Musical refrains from Rock & Roll songs helped get me through the Vietnam War. I didn’t know all the lyrics of the songs, only those short parts where I’d stop what I was doing and raise my voice in unison with the lead singer. 
A ‘Lot of Heart’ can go a Long Way in Life!
Kids I grew up with in the tough section of North Philadelphia said that I had “a lot of heart.” I cherish that statement more than any I later heard as a teenager, a young adult, or someone older looking back on what made him the proudest in his short lifetime.
Reiki Melts Away Stress Very Handily
Reiki melts away stress. That’s how it works on me. I feel parts of my body easing up, relaxing, and “collapsing in” on themselves, if that is possible or, rather, imaginable. I liken the feeling to the green-colored Wicked Witch of the West, who, when splashed accidentally with a bucket of water by the Tin Man trying to douse a fire engulfing the Straw Man, the personification of evil in the Merry Old Land of Oz, declares, “I’m melting. I’m melting.” Water melts away the bad, and Dorothy is proclaimed all that is good.
Recalling some cool summers in the Army
Summer always served as a “new beginning” for me when I was in the US Army. I got drafted on the Third of June and did my basic training in the hot, dry air of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
A rant against disrespect, hurt & the war
Much of what I know about War was what I learned while playing as a kid. You know, using a stick or a broken branch from a tree, I’d pretend it was a rifle to shoot the bad guys who were out to get me and the rest of the good guys in my old neighborhood. 
The ‘Wisdom I was Born With” is in you
When I write, I try to tap into the child within. I try to “feel” something that I can share with another, be it humorous, educational or shocking.
Continue readingCause of All Wars Questioned in Confederate Flag Controversy
President Barack Obama may have raised an issue on all wars when he eulogized a fallen comrade on June 26, 2015, at the funeral for the pastor of the AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Continue readingAchilles Contoveros spoke with his hands
We could never have had a delicate coffee table in our home when I was growing up. My dad – who came to America from Greece when he was only 15-years-old – would smash his hand onto the table, breaking it in two or more pieces.  Continue reading
Open yourself to hear the Universe speak
Listen to what the Universe is saying. It may speak to you in ways you might not understand unless you’re open to all means of communication. 
Listen for the ‘Wisdom You’re Born With’
Listen to Yourself.
Close your eyes and go within and listen to the Sounds of Silence.  Continue reading
True Love Passed Over for a Child’s Sake
Peggy sat at the table of the Blue Jay Restaurant, staring out the window and wondering where her life had gone and what she should do with her new condition. 
Calling all ‘Spiritual Soldiers of Fortune’
I believe that I have become a “Spiritual Soldier of Fortune” and would travel anywhere my heart beckons me to learn, to pray, and to find answers about the Universe.
Touched by an Angel to Help Guide Others
Angels can Perform Magic if we Open Ourselves to ‘Em!
Today, while in what I call the “Post-Meditative State,” I wondered if something spiritual might have occurred when I was much younger.
Science Supports the Law of Attraction
If you didn’t know it by now, science supports the claims made by Abraham about the Law of Attraction and how it could help revitalize your life from this moment on.
Meditation helps the Law of Attraction
“You don’t need To Work when you are Meditating.“
That’s the advice that Abraham offered to a young woman who was called to the stage to question the Spirits about issues she was facing on Saturday. She was among some 15 people who shared the “Hot Seat” at the Renaissance Hotel near Philadelphia’s International Airport for a workshop.
Abraham Calls Me to the Law of Attraction
I met Abraham up close and personal yesterday, and I learned the universe had called me to study the Law of Attraction as voiced by Esther Hicks, the one who channeled for the spirits guiding us back to the Source within. 
Buddhism is Simple Love and Awareness
What do you tell a person who wants to know about Buddhism?
Lucid dream opens a new world to explore
I dreamed a lucid dream for the first time in my life last night.
I’ll be One when I finally let myself ‘Let Go’
Could I ever be strong enough to let the more tender side of me take over and simply “Let Go“?
Love is the only gift I can bestow on you!
What gifts can I offer the world today? What insight, wisdom, or thought could I bestow on others seeking the healing we need for our mutual pain and suffering?
State of Our Spiritual Union is Flourishing
True Meaning of Life Flowering Now
Seeds planted in the 1960s have flowered, and the Age of Aquarius has finally dawned on the world, awakening many of us to a new way of living, a new way of forgiving.
Who had the biggest impact on your life?
A Person of Spiritual Growth and Guidance
The person who had the biggest impact on my life was my second wife, Wendy Wright Contos. She had a 157 IQ, but never once acted as if she was better than me. She easily got angry at injustices and would, on occasion, lash out against the hypocrisy of politicians, while helping the underprivileged and the rights of women in a male-dominated society. Continue reading
It was me an enemy sniper was trying to kill
A Sniper Takes Aim at this Young Lieutenant
A Viet Cong sniper was trying to kill me. Some motherfucker hiding in the trees, the bushes, the triple-canopy jungle had just shot at my platoon. I thought he was shooting randomly, despite the debris from the ground, grassland and other tiny bits of rock that struck me from a bullet’s ricochets.
Healing others starts first with healing self
Words of Another can help in Your Healing Continue reading
As stress keeps arising, meditation caps it
Someday I may just get my stress under control.
Learning a ‘Little Greek’ from Francesco
Student of History Learns About Saint Francis
What did I learn about Francis of Assisi while researching the facts about his life?
At least, no one is shooting at me this time
My book on St. Francis now on amazon.com
Well, I told you my first book would soon appear. And it did.
Contentment: Learning to be Content OK
“Good Enough” is the lazy man’s way to enlightenment . . . There’s nothing more to do . . . Your job is good enough . . . Your spouse is good enough . . .Your life is good enough . . . Your meditation practice is good enough. . . You don’t need anything more, and what you now have is good enough. —
New bucket list headed by state of Alaska
North to Alaska!
That’s where I’m headed next week, and I’ll start checking off the newest box of my “bucket list,” the list of things I want to do before I “kick the bucket.” Continue reading
Growing up with Catholic Sisters (Nuns)!
While growing up in a Catholic School, I met all kinds of nuns. Some I liked more than others.
Ithaca Insights Serve Up Peace & Calm
How May I Serve You? Continue reading
Meditate First and Foremost Each Day!
What a Surprise!
Francis of Assisi; awakening him by a novel
Dream of Writing a Book about to Come True
As I stand on the precipice of my literary journey, the dream of writing a book feels closer than ever. The countless hours spent brainstorming ideas, developing characters, and crafting intricate plots have finally begun to take shape. I can see the pages of my story unfolding before me, each chapter brimming with potential and passion.
Continue readingThe Enlightenment of a Dharma Listener
I’m down to just two more days now . . . Two more days in which to become enlightened through the 21-Day Meditation Experience of Deepak & Oprah. Today is the 20th Day. Tomorrow, I’m afraid, it will end for me and you.
Living with passion; name your 5 favorites
What are your passions in life? List five areas and describe what quality of energy and joy that passion brings out in you. – –Deepak and Oprah Meditation Experience
Writing heats up; twice blesses me & you
I am hot. I feel like I have a fever . . . A fever that pulses through me for the past several weeks. It seems this fever entered my bloodstream just about the same time as I started doing twice-a-day meditations with Deepak and Oprah for a 21-day Meditation Experience. Writing in the journal has added to the mix.
Hoping for a lofty goal, I write a lot & often
(Question 2 on Hope)
Think of a time when you felt sure you were going to attain a lofty goal, even though the path to the goal was not apparent. That is the hope that comes from your being.
Continue reading
Hope fills your presence and your future
We introduced a new understanding of hope today. We want to build a sense of hope that is a force of change that comes from a feeling of certainty and well-being within, rather than an anxious kind of hope that vaguely wishes for things to turn out well.
Explosion shatters Peace but calm prevails
Question 2 of 4 on ” Feeling Peaceful“
Thinking of this same peaceful experience, imagine that feeling of calm becoming deeper and stronger within your soul to the point where nothing happening in the environment could shake it. Describe what that kind of peace would feel like physically, mentally and emotionally. How could this type of peace change your life? — Deepak Chopra 21-Day Meditation Experience (Day 3 — “Feeling Peace”)
Getting a Good Last Laugh is so Laudable
Despite always having a smile on my lips and a laugh at my tongue, I found it hard to think of anything to write about for the latest meditation round for Oprah and Deepak.
Peace Found Deep Inside the Vietnam War
(Part 1 of 2)
Recall a time when you felt calm and peaceful, even though the circumstances were not peaceful. Write down a description of that event, and describe how you were able to be calm in that situation. What was the source of this peacefulness if it didn’t come from outside? — Deepak Chopra 21-Day Meditation Experience (Day 3 — “Feeling Peace”)
Transcending My State of Meditation
Transcend to a Higher Level of Consiousness
I took off from Planet Earth this morning. It all happened when Deepak Chopra pushed a button inside of me, using the words “transcend” and “Higher Levels of Consciousness. Continue reading
Don’t eat all the hummus, Michael J
To Michael J
From Melanie K
I had such a nice night. My favorite part was sitting outside talking on the bench. Who knew we would be together in such a situation?
Angels appear when disbelief is suspended
A friend of mine is “into” Angels. “Suspend your disbelief,” he told me, explaining how belief in angels re-materialized into his life recently. I knew at that moment that the resistance he had spoken of was puffing out its chest and stepping between me and the computer screen where his words appeared.
‘Spiritual Love Flows On’, Says the Maiden
(Continued from What’s next for love’s mysterious ways?)
The Maiden of Athena to the Foolish Knight:
Is this not, yet another spiritual practice for you?
For me too.
You’ve been Called; now Choose up Sides
Am I among the “Chosen?” Will I be one of those who make the “cutoff” at the end when the proverbial bill finally gets to be paid?
I Find my True Nature when Not Looking
When you touch that part of me that has never been touched, a dormant thing erupts.
Four Truths to Enoble the Strongest Mind
Sometimes the only way for me to understand something is to try to put it into my own words. Particularly, if I want to memorize or “imprint” something so that I can keep it near and dear to me, like an inspirational poem or saying I still remember from my earliest days.
Sweat Lodge Reveals many Creative Spirits
It took several hours for the effects of the Sweat Lodge ceremony to kick in, but when it did, I realized the control I always thought I needed was not in my hands, but in what the Greeks called the Fates; the Christians, God; and the Buddhists, Karma.
Breathing to ‘Right Self’ is a Lifetime Job
Don’t think my friend, Lea Stoneheart, expected such angst from me while responding to her comment about “The Hidden Costs of War” Retreat at Omega Institute five days last week [April 22, 2010]. It just spewed out. I guess I’m still processing much of what occurred. It will take time to learn to use tools to seek peace without first having to go to war.
Continue readingDivine Mother, Spare the Fem-in-’em Now
Take ’em. Break ’em. Make ’em.
O Grand Master, it is your females that will save this species. It is through their power, their innate abilities, that man will be saved. Compassion and love must rule the day again. And power must be crushed by the mallet of humility before any dare sends another child into war that old men dream of winning as if playing games of adolescent ruffians. 
Yearning for you grows with each touch
Saying ‘I Love You’ Twice Blesses Me!
“I Love.”
It’s an affirmation I can live with over and over, day in and day out, from one lifetime to another, without ever getting tired of saying it.
God needs no Out-of-Body Experience
Too often I hear someone talk about an “out-of-body” experience as if it was the greatest thing since, I don’t know, the invention of peanut butter. Astral projection is another feat people speak of in hushed tones as if their trip from one place to another meant everything in the world.
Don’t let me believe in all my thoughts
I’m so scared because I don’t know what to do, nor who to turn to. Flashes of insights, intuition, and a “knowing” that borders on the Psychic have arisen in me and I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse.  Continue reading
Friar Pope champions single moms, Chastises clergy for shutting ’em out
He’s at it again. This time, the Friar Pope is championing what I call the “untouchable class” of Catholics, the single mother, also known throughout Christianity’s Dark Ages as the “UN – WED MOTHER.”
(Funny, but those Dark Ages seem like only yesterday!)  Continue reading
Doors are Opening for All Doing Good!
There’s a passage in Mark’s Gospel in which Jesus’ disciples complain that someone — one who is not one of them — is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. It seems that fundamentalists of all ages have held a belief that there was only one way to get to the kingdom; only one way, and that was through Jesus.  Continue reading
Contoveros 