Category Archives: Inspirational

Thích Nhất Hạnh sees the suffering in us

by contoveros
  • Thích Nhất Hạnh looked at me from the most sorrowful eyes I have ever seen, and I understood what it was like for a person to feel all the suffering the world is experiencing.

     I had attended a five-day silent retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery in upstate New York with some thousand others who meditated morning, noon, and night. Someone would ring a bell as you walked through the monastery grounds and just like clockwork, everyone would stop what they were doing and rest in the present moment.  Continue reading →

Love overtakes this veteran in meditation

by contoveros

     “Use me” I cried out to the Universe when visualizing myself spread out on a cross while meditating with a small group in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. Continue reading →

Breaking the habit of an unwanted self

by contoveros

I shed twelve pounds in less than six weeks!

Can you believe it?  I did it by visualizing myself getting into a shirt I haven’t worn since I put on extra weight. It’s part of a course I took entitled “Tap into Your Genius” and is based on the teachings of Dr. Joe Dispenza.  Continue reading →

Sleeping Again as if I’m still a Youngster!

by contoveros

I slept through the night last night.

To me, it’s a big deal for it is something I haven’t done in quite a while. You see, I have Prostate Problems. I got diagnosed with it while at the VA Hospital, and I take medication every night, but no matter what I do, I still have to get up in the middle of the night and take a pee.  Continue reading →

A Writer’s love song to his favorite muse

by contoveros

My Mind’s a Blank.

     I can’t think of anything to write about.

I feel lost, adrift, less than human.

     That is what happens when you make writing your life’s love. You want to write all of the time and never be too far away from what writing can do for you. Continue reading →

The Law taught to me by James Strazzella!

by contoveros

     My Criminal Law Professor just died, and I cried like a baby this past week. I couldn’t help but look at the photograph taken of him presenting me with a Trial Advocacy Award upon graduation in 1988. The framed picture rests on the mantel of an old wood—burning stove in my dining room. It is one of my prized possessions.  Continue reading →

100 nations visited the Contoveros site

by contoveros

flag.png     Someone from 100 different countries has viewed this site and my flag counter can attest to the number of nations represented here.

     I started to write a Blog some seven years ago and hooked up with a link that not only counted the number of persons viewing Contoveros, but determined which country that person was from. I placed the flag counter at the top of my Blog so that anyone — including myself — could readily see it on linking into Contoveros. It’s at my home site.

(See Flag Counter for the latest count. Trinidad is the latest country added to my list!)  Continue reading →

Meditation starts as you travel through life

by contoveros

I learned to meditate easily while riding on a train.

I had tried sitting mediation alone and with others, but was successful only once, and I really don’t know what I was doing. I was following a guru – a 15-year-old teacher from India — before I had turned 30, and I mingled with aspirants in an ashram in Philadelphia. I never touched Nirvana or reached the level that others seemed to rise to. Continue reading →

Writing reveals songs within the stillness

by contoveros

Writing opens me to a world within that I usually don’t visit unless I’m asleep or go into a meditative state. I let go of most thoughts except the one that crops up as I focus on a subject, or rather, it reveals itself to me.  Continue reading →

Accepting the ‘As Is’ with Gratitude & Joy

by contoveros

There is a message I receive every time I travel to the IKEA store and visit the “As Is” department. I get a feeling that the Universe is telling me to open myself to the message the Swedish furniture store wants to share with the rest of the world.

Accept life “As Is,” it softly calls out to me. Continue reading →

Tootsie Roll Pops Always Made Me Smile

by contoveros

Chocolate was my favorite flavor Tootsie Roll Pop. Cherry was my second. I don’t remember the first time I licked one. I must have gotten the candy at age five or six years old. Continue reading →

Seeing the real world created for you & me

by contoveros

Want to change the way you see?

Close your eyes. Take three full breaths.

Visualize a loving moment.

Stretch out the feeling.

face

Extend that feeling to the entire world when you open your eyes.

Do it until you do it!

– a student of Losang Samten. Tibetan Buddhist Monk

Sign language opens my heart to neighbors

by contoveros

My greatest concern while placing political signs on my lawn recently was whether they would offend someone in my neighborhood. I live in a working class section of Pennsylvania, some 15 miles outside of Philadelphia. It was dependent on steel and manufacturing for many years, but eventually saw a decline as jobs left the little Borough of Conshohocken for elsewhere. Continue reading →

Those seeking help for PTSD war wounds are not all that weak, my dear Mr. Trump!

by contoveros

Dear Mr. Trump,

I never felt “weak” when I started feeling the rage that grew in me from Post-Traumatic Stress following 25 years after leading an infantry platoon in the Vietnam War. Continue reading →

Got a Ghost Tale to tell for this Halloween?

by contoveros

My Uncle Mike was a grizzly white haired Greek who spoke little to no English when my father invited him to stay in our house in North Philadelphia. I don’t know if he really was a blood relative, but he was one of the meanest mother-humpers I had ever come into contact with as a child. Continue reading →

How would like to see yourself next year?

by contoveros

If I had a magic wand, I’d wave it all over my body, magically ordering it to relax and begin to accept all the good and the bad life has to throw at me

I would want to treat it all with Equanimity.  Continue reading →

St. Michael the Archangel honored today!

by contoveros

September 29th is Michaelmas Day, the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, when everyone with the moniker of Michael will feel the roots extending from our favorite saint. Continue reading →

Creativity flows from a true act of defiance

by contoveros

When the Good Lord created the Universe, He created order out of chaos. He instilled Free Will in earthlings, something he withheld from the angels of whom He created first. Continue reading →

Shooting political signs never the answer

by contoveros

I wanted to shoot the political sign I saw outside of Philadelphia the other day but ended up feeling sorry for all of us who react violently against the person we demonize on the other side of the aisle. Continue reading →

Cats & Dogs would come first in a do-over

by contoveros

If I had my druthers, I think I would have made cats and dogs more like people and made people more like the other animals.

Yes, as God, I would have changed the Book of Genesis and created the dog first, and then, taking a rib from the first one, I would have created his loving mate and good friend, the cat. Continue reading →

Dream a little (recurring) dream with me

by contoveros

I had my recurring dream again last night. For several years, I have gone to work at the daily newspaper, dreaming that the deadline for submitting copy was just minutes away and I had typed nothing about my story for the day.  Continue reading →

Contoveros reveals his dark hiding place

by contoveros

You’ll never find me here.

I learned years ago that I could hide away from you whenever I feel you’re looking too closely at me or expecting me to act a certain way that I really don’t want to act, to speak, or to even think. Continue reading →

’12 Angry Men’ helps presume innocence

by contoveros

“Twelve Angry Men” influenced my decision to practice law more than any movie I can remember while growing up in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia and being the first in my family to go to college. The movie has done more for understanding the workings of our criminal justice system than any books or school classes could possibly provide. Continue reading →

African Americans lose all, Mr. Trump

by contoveros

“What the hell do you have to lose?” Donald Trump shouted to the all-white audience while pretending he was asking African Americans to vote for him last week.

In response, Chris Rock responded with one word: “Everything.” Continue reading →

Immigrants unite against Trump out of love

by contoveros

I was unashamed of the tears that fell while watching the father of a young soldier describe the sacrifice his son made for America the other night. Khizr Khan, a Muslim immigrant, spoke with pride at the Democratic Convention and I couldn’t help but see my father in him and the love all parents felt for children called by our nation to defend it. Continue reading →

Play as if your life depends on it – It does!

by contoveros

Playing is something I do quite well, if I do say so myself. I enjoyed it ever since I was a kid and don’t see how I could truly enjoy my life if I didn’t incorporate some sort of play in my daily living.  Continue reading →

LSD truthfulness speaks to past love lost

by contoveros

An LSD Trip caused me to be truthful with a girl I dated while loving another.

————-

     “I didn’t mean to hurt you“ I said.” I just thought you needed to know, that’s all.”

The girl whose nickname was Peaches said nothing as we sat on the floor of her vestibule. I saw her eyes water up a little and I wanted to cry myself.

Continue reading →

‘Instigator’ muse helps to open new worlds

by contoveros

Can someone become the “muse” of another?

Could my reckless and often unabashed “agitation” be the instigation for another person to find the voice she needed to speak directly from her soul?

I like to think so. I believe I might have sparked a keg of memories that were waiting for the right moment and touch to manifest and explode for the world to finally see. Continue reading →

Mother recalls son’s last ‘earthly’ words

by contoveros

By TEA

It was Saturday morning, May the 19th of 2012. I awoke that early morning feeling well rested. Since the beginning of the new year, I have been working Monday through Thursday, having Fridays off. In the past, when working a full week, my Saturdays were spent sleeping in and catching up on the many hours of sleep lost during the week. Continue reading →

Universe brings music ‘Homeward Bound’

by contoveros

I saw the singer and songwriter Paul Simon last night, and he’s “still crazy after all these years.”  Continue reading →

Congress protest makes me proud of USA

by contoveros

I’ve never been so proud of being an American as I was the past week when some forty members of the Senate held an unprecedented filibuster and it was followed up by Congressional Democrats who took the House Chamber hostage for a “sit-in” protest against our nation’s inability to halt the sale of high-powered weapons now being used for mass destruction. Continue reading →

Anger starts out from my basic personality

by contoveros

Why is anger my “go-to” emotion? Why does it crop up whenever I’m confronted with something I don’t understand or something I feel threatened by?

“Crop up“ is not the right phrase to use. My anger “erupts.” It goes from zero to sixty within the span of a millisecond. It always seemed to be that way, even as a kid. Now at last I think I know why. Continue reading →

Touch at least one heart with Meet-Up now

by contoveros

If you could go back in time to attend a Meet-Up in Jerusalem with the famous rabbi from Nazareth to share some bread, wine and good conversation, would you sign up and go?

How about traveling back some 2,600 years to give a listen to the Four Noble Truths in northern India by a fellow who some claim had reached Enlightenment? Would you agree to meet weekly to discuss life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Continue reading →

Regulations needed for mass shootings!

by contoveros

You Don’t Buy!

If

You Don’t Fly!

It should be as simple as that! If the federal government has reasonable suspicion to place you on a terrorist “No Fly List,” you should also be barred from buying guns.

No ands, ifs, or buts.  Continue reading →

Wounds of Love Still Hurt this Soldier Boy

by contoveros

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Peggy’s mother, Mary, answered and said “Hello, Michael.” She didn’t invite me in, but smiled, and I kind of smiled back.  Continue reading →

Honesty always the best policy in her court

by contoveros

You should never call a woman a bitch.

Particularly if she’s wearing a long black robe and has the power to throw you in jail for anything deemed to be contempt of court. Her Court, that is. Continue reading →

Coke and a Smile Now Watered Way Down

by contoveros

I love Coca-Cola. It has been my favorite drink since I don’t remember when. I guess it all started with the small green bottles that you had to use an honest-to-goodness bottle opener to crack open. Continue reading →

A Course of Love is uniquely one of a kind!

by contoveros

Reading a chapter from the book, “A Course of Love,” is much like my study of the Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah.

I get uplifted and carried to another place, a different state of mind where I feel closer to the Word. The Word of God, if you know what I mean.

Continue reading →

Emergency hits home; order soon restored

by contoveros

     My second wife stopped breathing shortly after they placed her in the emergency vehicle en route to a hospital some eight years ago. The day was six-months to date of her first bout with an emergency wagon when she fell in our Conshohocken, PA, home, suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

She remained in a coma for more than five days. This time, however, they were more certain that she would not recover from her latest, unplanned date with Miss Fate. A nurse or a social worker at the Hospital suggested I contact a priest to say the last rites for Wendy. Continue reading →

‘Love & Rockets’ explode near this veteran

by contoveros

My son, Nicholas, just didn’t seem to understand how much pain I suffered in Sutcliffe Park when I took him to see fireworks on clear and starry night sky on the Fourth of July some years ago.

At first, I enjoyed the rockets zooming into the air. They were colorful red, white, and blue explosions that took your breath away with gasps of wonder and awe.

Soon, however, they took on a menacing demeanor, as each blast began to remind me of the Vietnam War and the rounds of mortar fire that fell on me and my platoon some 40 years earlier.  Continue reading →

Dissolving Pain through seeing differently

by contoveros

I’ve opened my mind to a new way of seeing and I am free as long as I can keep my peripheral vision on anything but the object of my focus.

What I do is distract myself from looking at the car in front of me when I’m cruising on the highway. I set my gaze off in the distance, where I take in the beautiful blue skies interrupted now and again by a while cloud.  Continue reading →

‘Brewerytown Way’ Brought Back to Life

by contoveros

I see my life through the eyes of a kid who grew up in Brewerytown, swashbuckling my way through fights on the streets and later the jungles of Vietnam before finding my true calling as a spiritual clarion who wants all North Philadelphia children to return to their God-given Nature of Love. Continue reading →

Trusting the Universe when ‘lost & found’

by contoveros

I lost the damn wallet again.

It was the second time in about a week it turned up missing. The first time was in Korea, and I never detected its loss. The Reverend Lee, the WON Buddhist minister leading a pilgrimage in Korea last week, had approached me with a black object in her hand. She looked worried, and I couldn’t figure out what caused her distress.  Continue reading →

Some ‘WON’ is in the kitchen with Julie!

by contoveros

Julie traveled all the way from Chicago and came to the Lotus Flower Island with a question about her life’s purpose. By the time she left the privately owned spiritual retreat, there was no doubt whatsoever that she found the answer she was looking for.

She’ll return to this rustic hideaway, hidden away off the mainland of South Korea, and remain there, devoting herself to serving others from around the world who are searching for similar answers. Julie’s newfound happiness will be in helping others suffering from too much technology and not enough love. Continue reading →

‘I don’t know’ — first step for my true path

by contoveros

“I don’t know” is soon to become my life-long mantra.

It has helped me immensely in calming the “monkey mind” after a wonderful Korean woman introduced it to me, and it took a full day for me to understand its profound ramifications.

For me, saying “I don’t know” is a way of humbling myself and admitting that I know very little about the world I live in and what really matters in the scheme of life. No matter how hard I try to “get it right” through searching and throwing myself into one spiritual path after another, the end result brings me no closer to any definite answer and it’s okay to let it go and simply say “I don’t know” to the world.

Continue reading →

Majestic feeling opens me to another world

by contoveros

I’ve been to some ten different Buddhist temples in the mountainous regions of Korea, taking in the rustic, centuries-old magnificent works of art and spiritual creations of man. I felt uplifted when entering doorways that millions, perhaps billions, of others walked through in search of peace and calm on their way to potential enlightenment.

None, however, has inspired more of a majestic feeling inside than the new WON Center in Seoul, Korea, where a bolt of soft and pure lightning once again struck me with what I can only describe as a divine presence that’s humbling and elevating at the same time. Continue reading →

Chanting can cure what ails your busy mind

by contoveros

“Namuamitabul” is a Korean Buddhist chant that means “The Buddha of infinite light, infinite life, and infinite wisdom.”

This chant is recited numerous times by participants in a WON Buddhist meditation as part of a routine that involves chanting, sitting meditation, and walking meditation.  Continue reading →

First learn the ‘Way’ before leading others

by contoveros

Pride Cometh Before the Fall.

Continue reading →

Serving graciously as a St. Ludwig altar boy

by contoveros

“Ad Deum Qui Laetificat Juventutem Meam!”

That’s one of the prayers I’d recite as an altar boy at St. Ludwig’s Roman Catholic Church, and I’ll never forget it ‘til the day I die. Don’t ask me what it means right now. I never figured it out as a kid, but I loved to say it!  Continue reading →

Korea calling me to seek answers within

by contoveros

Korea awaits me next week as I travel more than a thousand miles to find myself and discover reasons why I am still here on planet earth.

       Yes, I’m joining a group from Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago that will fly to Seoul, South Korea, to take part in the centennial celebration of the WON Buddhism by its master on April 28th, 1916. Continue reading →

A Course of Love awakens love inside & out

by contoveros

The Beatles got it right in the 1960s.

“All You Need is Love.”

“Love is All There Is.”

————–

     I couldn’t agree with them more, particularly after experiencing the warm glow and gentle caress of a bunch of lovers who helped me to open my foolish heart to “A Course of Love.”  Continue reading →

Equanimity for anticipation & expectations

by contoveros

Carly Simon sang it . . .

The Heinz ketchup bottle illustrated what it could look like . . .

     And I have fallen victim to it whenever I try something new and start to visualize what could possibly go wrong.

It’s called “Anticipation Anxiety Continue reading →

Words Prompt Me to Share Love of Music

by contoveros

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!

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

Day 7 – Total Balance Is Natural Balance

Question 1 of 4

Describe three sources of inspiration in your life that keep you aiming to be a better you.

— Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra’s Free 21-day Meditation
———-
My calling in life is to help others come closer to the Light. I firmly belief that we all came from the Light, and that we all want to return to it. I want to share my experiences with the Divine so that others can see how Love’s energy can rise from life’s difficulties, a simple schmuck like me.

Continue reading →

Create a life of magical renewal with Love

by contoveros

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 →

Message from lower world: lighten burden

by contoveros

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 →

The back of the heart offers ‘Will to Love’

by contoveros

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.

Love also appeared in our lives as infants as our loving mother held us, cradling our small bodies with her hand behind the back of our necks. She held the spot where the brain and skull come into contact with the spinal cord, the neck area.

Continue reading →

Calm the wandering mind & feel happiness

by contoveros

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.

Don’t take my word for it. Scientific research has discovered that the active conditions of anxiety and agitation cause unhappiness. Becoming quiet and stilling the mind lowers blood pressure and relieves the stress that’s produced in our busy lives.  Continue reading →

Journey into self opens possibilities for me

by contoveros
  • I manifested as an African American riding a horse as a cowboy in the old American West.
  • Next, I felt the chains on my legs as I rowed in a galley ship as a Greek slave in a land governed by the Romans in some year BC.
  • Sand. Lots of sand with its rich mixture of roughness and tan properties became my next existence.
  • That was followed by my essence being made up as a piece of glass. A clear glass with a tint of green like the old-fashioned Coca Cola bottles.
  • Finally, I envisioned myself turning into a Soldier of Love with healing powers I never knew existed.  Continue reading →

The ‘Shadow’ helps in Spiritual Maturation

by contoveros

What is healing?

Those words in German jumped off the page from a brochure I couldn’t read, but by the end of a presentation in Freiburg, Germany, I got a better handle on who does the healing.

I do! And you do!  Continue reading →

Obstacles to German retreat removed now

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

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.

I slept like a proverbial baby, having gotten up only once during the night — around 4:30 am — to relieve the bladder and be kind to my prostate. Going back to bed, I drifted right back to sleep and enjoyed a complete dream of the old neighborhood and my days in a lawyer’s office, both in Philadelphia.  Continue reading →

Nothing has helped my back pains now

by contoveros

I felt nothing this morning.

For the past five days, nothing greeted me when I got out of bed.

There was no ache, no pain, no reminder of how bad my back has become after so many years of walking, running and standing on this earth. Not to mention, jumping out of an airplane five times, landing badly on my first parachute jump, and hiding it from the military instructor who would have kicked me out of jump school had he suspected I injured myself.  Continue reading →

Home where I grew up still haunts my mind

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

I’m having fun.

I’m enjoying life and feel a peace and calm I didn’t know I’d ever experience again. It’s like falling in love for the very first time. I look forward to each new day filled with hope and a smile for whatever life presents to me.  Continue reading →

Universe conspiring to guide us all

by contoveros

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 →

Psychic Cat comes alive watching my TV

by contoveros

I think I’m going “Cat Shit.” You probably heard of someone going “Bat Shit.” But I’m here to tell you that I’ve gone “Cat Shit” and this is the reason why:

My son’s cat, Daniel, has developed some ESP skills. Extraordinary Sensing People skills.  Continue reading →

Psychic Powers Arise When You Believe!

by contoveros

Psychometry – the art of visualizing an energy force or spirit from a token or an object – really does work.

I recently took part in the practice and discovered insights I never believed possible until I realized I had developed some sort of psychic ability.  Continue reading →

‘Singer of Truth’ is Contoveros’ Aspiration

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

“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 →

Peace shared throughout the world today

by contoveros

“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

by contoveros

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 Winter Solstice Dream

by contoveros

“Inner Being” is a State of Mind 

Continue reading →

Feeling 17 again, despite the aging process

by contoveros

I don’t feel my age. I know I’m getting older and will soon meet my Maker. But I just can’t see myself as a senior citizen, let alone someone who will one day praise the glory of Medicare and the free rides on public transportation in Philadelphia.

To tell you the truth, I feel like I’m seventeen years old again. My body would disagree, but my heart and my mind often see things from that period of time . . . It was a time when I had just graduated high school and the world was my oyster, so to speak.  Continue reading →

Diving like a mermaid to discover life

by contoveros

I love my cousin Betty Ann. She’s a few years older than me but I warmed up to her just as my adolescent hormones started to bubble up as I visited her at her farmhouse in New Jersey years ago. Continue reading →

Fear not your brightest light, let it shine!

by contoveros
  • “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

Continue reading →

How did we choose the journey we’re on?

by contoveros

I would love to write a book about how people came to the current journey they’re on.

You see, I have this tendency of going up to people and asking them how they came to be where they are; that is, spiritually, if you know what I mean.

Continue reading →

‘Healthy Brain, Healthy Living’ Mystifies

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

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?

And then while resonating with it, you get a warm glow about yourself; you feel lighter, more connected with the world, and so happy that another person can put into words what you know is so true?  Continue reading →

On my knees being grateful every day

by contoveros

I fall to my knees every day and give thanks for at least three things that I am totally grateful for. I usually include my son and at least one of our cats but also acknowledge the advent of a new day as well as a nice new warm bed and the person who invented the heater to keep all of us warm. The cats included!  Continue reading →

‘Never touch the root of evil,’ Francis said

by contoveros

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.

Literally!

Continue reading →

Reliving the presence of love again & again

by contoveros

I remembered what love once meant to me, and I thought I’d share it with those of us who might have forgotten it.

I’m talking about the love that hits you upside the head when you’re not looking; the type that won’t let you think of anyone else besides him or her; the love that you wish your lover would feel but you’re too afraid to hope for a schmuck like yourself.  Continue reading →

What I Believe Makes Me Who I Am

by contoveros

Who am I? What do I believe? And can I name a few of my beliefs?

Let me name a few things I believe about myself. They’re in no particular order.  Continue reading →

What I believe will enhance my life forever

by contoveros

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!

We don’t usually seek the answer right away. Most put it off until some calamity forces us to find answers to life’s most important questions. Why am I here? Why am I in this body? Who am I, really?  Continue reading →

My ‘Vietnam War Recall’ starts tomorrow

by contoveros

“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!” 

  • American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman

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Taps by my Emotional Freedom Technique

by contoveros

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!

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Opening myself through group awareness

by contoveros

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 →

Death is unfrightening once Wisdom grows

by contoveros

Death doesn’t seem to scare me as much as it used to. I mean, I see it as a transition, and not an ending. In some ways, it will be a welcome “new adventure” if you think about it in spiritual terms.

No, I’m not talking about heaven and hell like the Catholic nuns and priests preached to me as a kid at St. Ludwig’s Roman Catholic Church where I served as an altar boy and wanted to be a priest until I discovered girls. I’m talking about a transition to a “way station,” a place where your spirit — or soul — ascends to meet with higher spirits or what some might call Ascended Masters.  Continue reading →

9-11 is Our Generation’s ‘Day Of Infamy’

by contoveros

Like December 7th, 1941, the date of “9-11” will go down in American history as a new generation’s Day of Infamy.

In my lifetime, it ranks up there with the horrific day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Continue reading →

Recalling love in a 30-yr-old 1-night stand

by contoveros

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.” Someone you enjoyed being with for an hour, a night, or just one day in the life of two ships like us meeting briefly on a night at sea.  Continue reading →

Joe Hill never died; he went on to organize!

by contoveros

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

by contoveros

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.  Continue reading →

A ‘Lot of Heart’ can go a Long Way in Life!

by contoveros

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. You’d have a “lot of heart” if you didn’t care for the consequences when sticking up for a black kid when a white “friend” called him the “N” word and then classified you as a “N-gger lover” for coming to his defense.

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Reiki Melts Away Stress Very Handily

by contoveros

     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.

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Recalling some cool summers in the Army

by contoveros

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.

I can’t tell you how many push-ups I did during the two-month training session, as the meanest drill sergeant I ever saw brought fire to my poor soul by running me everywhere and cussing me out to force me into fighting shape.

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A rant against disrespect, hurt & the war

by contoveros

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. 

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