I began a major endeavor this month to re-edit all of the Blog Posts that I had written over the years, and it has re-opened many of the hopes and dreams that I once shared while writing and sharing messages at Contoveros.Wordpress.com.
Continue readingTag Archives: awakening
Grandkids Add Fun & Lotsa Joy to All
What a joy grandkids provide us, particularly when they share their daily lives with you as a family. I’m talking about my 6-year-old grandchild, Denalia, and my rambunctious 8-year-old grandson, Jameson Contos.
Continue readingA Bird Greets me for Another Glorious Day
For the first time in my life, a bird greeted me outside my bedroom window as I contemplated whether to get out of bed earlier today.
It was 6 a.m. in the morning! A little too early for my taste, so I just rolled over and rested my head against the two pillows I had piled up on one side of the bed. (They help prop me up when I watch television many hours later.)
Continue readingHonor Flight to War Memorials Scheduled
I will be off to Washington DC next month on an excursion strictly for veterans to participate in what has been designated as an “Honor Flight” for those who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Trip to Our Nation’s Capital will be Honorable
The program was created some years ago and even provided airfare for those living on the West Coast and living too far to make a trip to the nation’s capital by vehicle. That is where it got its name “Honor Flight” and in my bailiwick, that would be “Honor Flight Philadelphia.”
We will check into our lift-off facility between 4 and 5 a.m. on May 17th and share donuts and coffee at the Upper Merion Township Middle School until we are driven to the bus departing from the City of Brotherly Love at 5:30 a.m. The first patriotic eye-opening event will occur at 9:30 a.m. as we are slated to witness the “Changing of the Guard” while visiting with the Tomb Guard.
Childhood Dreams Recalled for Iwo Jima Statue
Iwo Jima will come next and my heart and mind will be thrown back to my childhood when I dreamed of becoming a Marine due in large part to the war movies I had seen and my love of that photograph and the later monument built of the Marines raising the American flag at that Japanese island toward the end of World War II (Feb. 23, 1945).
The Air Force Drill Team will greet us next followed shortly afterward at the Navy Memorial and a bountiful lunch. (No C-rations will be offered to any of my GI friends known as “grunts“!)
The Korean War Memorial will then be shown to us shortly thereafter.
Will Visit the Vietnam War Memorial Again
Next, I will once again focus on the engraved names of my fallen comrades as we visit the Vietnam War Memorial where the two 200-foot-long sections of a granite wall contain the list of 58,281 U.S. service members who died in that war. The names are listed in chronological order by date of casualty.
I will once again cry when I see First Lieutenant Victor Lee Ellinger’s name inscribed near the date of November 23, 1970. We served together in the “C Company” of 12th Infantry, and 2nd Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division as unit commanders. The combat infantry platoon leader was killed by sniper fire.
Finally, we will visit the World War II Memorial at 2:30 p.m. and depart by bus from Washington a half hour later. At 6 p.m. we will be greeted by well-wishers at the Upper Merion Middle School where dinner and entertainment will be provided to those of us who served.
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An Honor Flight Philadelphia leaflet Says:
“This is our tribute to you for all the sacrifices you have endured so the rest of us can live free. Enjoy your “Tour of Honor” to your memorial and be treated with the honor you so richly deserve. It is going to be a long day but I assure you it will be a rewarding day filled with memories.)
Hank Williams singer & song-writer honor
The month of January will always bring a sad feeling when I recall what happened on the first day of the year in 1953 to one of the greatest Country and Western singers of all time.
Continue readingAging process is now slowing me down
SLOW DOWN!
I believe that is what the Universe is telling me as I have gotten older and time has caught up with this aging body that – for the life of me – can’t physically handle everyday chores and activities I routinely completed some six months ago.
Continue readingNeed for America’s Global Unity is now
I will be participating this Sunday in a gathering sponsored by a group presenting a woman I have followed for more than 10 years on a spiritual journey. Lorna Byrne is a woman from Ireland who has been seeing and speaking with angels since she was two years old and written several books on how we can open ourselves to the angelic realm that exists for our benefit.
Continue readingSeniors are Opening to Meditation Now!
I never thought that words I wrote on a slip of paper and dropped into a suggestion box would somehow enlighten me!
Continue readingPottstown Mercury Newspaper reunion
The Pottstown Mercury Newspaper – where I served as cub reporter during the Bicentennial Year – will have a reunion as one of my mentors and great news reporters has scheduled a meeting this weekend.
Continue readingCharlie Chaplin gets Laughs from All Kids
I got a kick out of introducing my grandson to one of the most enduring and well-liked comedians of all time.
Continue readingDemocracy Wins in this Historic Jury Trial
Relieved.
Grateful.
Joyful.
Those are the words that sprung from my heart and soul as I took in what the jury provided the entire world with their unanimous decision to convict a former USA president.
Continue readingGood things happen when you open to ’em
They say that “bad things happen in threes.” But I’m here to tell you that good things can happen in threes if you but open yourself to ’em.
Continue readingWhat to do when hearing you’re deceased
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
That is what Mark Twain wrote in a cablegram he sent from Europe to a newspaper publisher in the United States that had published an obituary with false details of his death in a widely circulated newspaper one day more than a hundred years ago.
I am saying the same thing right now in the year 2024!
Continue readingSongs with numbers in them awaken me!
A Trivia game I played with senior citizens recently at the Upper Merion Senior Service Center focused on musical songs that contained numbers in their titles.
Continue readingExcellent Treatment at Philly VA Hospital
I am about to get one of those RSV shots at the VA Hospital of Philadelphia to prevent any lung infection, and I wanted to share my enthusiasm for all the work the Veterans Administration has provided me with most of my adult life.
Continue readingBirthday coincidence or just a cosmic joke?
Does Fate have anything to do with the day that a person is born? Can one person born on the same date years earlier have some sort of influence on someone born years and perhaps even centuries later?
Continue readingHas a “huge angel” been influencing me?
While attending the 10th anniversary of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism, a mystical experience opened my eyes to so many spiritual possibilities.
Continue readingHeartline & Intuition studies completed
It has taken me three years to complete one study and a mere two years to finish the other, but I believe I have contributed to the scientific understanding of researchers for possible heart ailments and changes in thinking and memory for adults.
Continue reading‘Don’t mess around with Synchronicity’
I was thinking about a story I once wrote for a newspaper about the Philadelphia-born singer Jim Croce, and I discovered so many steppingstones that guided me from one career choice to another with an almost mystical maneuvering.
Continue readingSupreme Court Guts a More Perfect Union
Today’s Supreme Court is the worst judicial tribunal since the United States’ highest judiciary ruled in 1856 that blacks were not and could not be citizens.
Continue readingBobby Darin tribute for his birthday today
Today (May 13th) is the birthday of my favorite singer of all time.
If he lived, Bobby Darin would have turned 87, but a rheumatic heart condition caused a premature death at age 37.
That was exactly 50 years ago this year on Dec. 20, 1973.
Continue reading‘Stand Back’ Proud Boys Guilty of Treason
Traitors.
That’s the word that everyone in the United States can call four of the Proud Boys who were found guilty by a jury of their peers for taking part in the insurrection conducted in the Capital on Jan. 6, 2021. They reached the verdict on 31 of 46 counts following seven days of deliberation in Washington DC and nearly 15 weeks of courtroom proceedings.
Continue readingGabriel’s Messages – available to all souls!
“Gabriel’s Messages” opened my heart to so many truths not only about life but of the transition of death, and I hope that others can read this wonderful book by my friend, Cyndi Smith, a fellow member of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.
Continue readingBan Fox News lies from our military bases
Fox News should be curtailed on all military bases and facilities to prevent men and women in uniform to be lied to about stories and events shaping our nation, particularly the political world around us.
Continue reading‘So It Goes’ for Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Anti-War Veteran Author, and also a Former POW
One of my all-time favorite authors – a veteran who was a POW and a staunch anti-war advocate – would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month.
Continue readingSt. Francis of Assisi is truly honored today
The world is celebrating the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi today!
Continue readingCommunity College creates career choices
(See Part I “My Delaware County Community College!”)
Before I ever went to a Community College, I had to make up several deficits in my learning. I had to take Remedial Math as well as Remedial English. I passed both and was then permitted to take regular classes which include journalism studies and just as important, the school’s extra-curricular activity of working on the college newspaper.
Awakening to sounds of the outdoors again
Got a new pair of Hearing Aids, and a new world of sounds has opened!
Continue readingA photo gift for a GI & a swimsuit recovery!
What do a missing swimsuit and a 50-year-old photo of a newly-minted lieutenant have in common?
Continue readingGabriel’s Message Enlightens the moment
The following is Gabriel’s Message as channeled by my good friend Cyndi Smith:
Your soul does not completely fit inside your body. Some of your soul Remains in Heaven in what you call your Higher Self. Much of it is here inside of you but the part that overflows your body is called your aura.
Continue readingA Brewerytown Kid Grows Up – Reviewed!
Kids who ‘shared a kiss’ reunite years later
Sixty years to the day of the most memorable kiss of my life, the girl who bestowed that kiss had contacted me for the first time since way back then.
Continue readingVietnam War Book Review a 4-Stars Rate!
Please Read and Enjoy This Review of My Book
authored by Michael J Contos
at Contoveros.wordpress.com
Continue readingMy Vietnam War Book is finally Published!
It took me more than 50 years, but I finally published my Vietnam War story and the toll it took on me after leading a combat infantry platoon when I was just a 21-year-old first lieutenant in the US Army.
Continue readingVFW opens me to a local veterans retreat
Well, I Joined the VFW.
That is, the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I could’ve joined it right out of the Vietnam War, but at that time of my life, I didn’t want to help support the war that I had just left.
Continue readingSt. Michael the Archangel honored today!
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
’12 Angry Men’ Helps Presume Innocence
“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
‘Instigator’ muse helps to open new worlds
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?
Mother recalls son’s last ‘earthly’ words
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
A Course of Love is uniquely one of a kind!
Reading a chapter from the book, “A Course of Love,” is much like my study of the Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah.
Emergency hits home; order soon restored
My second wife stopped breathing shortly after they placed her in the emergency vehicle.
‘Love & Rockets’ explode near this veteran
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.
Some ‘WON’ is in the kitchen with Julie!
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.
Majestic feeling opens me to another world
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.
Continue readingKorea calling me to seek answers within
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.
A Course of Love awakens love inside & out
The Beatles got it right in the 1960s.
“All You Need is Love.”
Equanimity for anticipation & expectations
Carly Simon sang it . . .
The Heinz ketchup bottle illustrated what it could look like . . .
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 readingName 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.
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.
Fun times await all who can be a kid again
I’m Having Fun!
Psychic Cat comes alive watching my TV
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 Vision Board’s World-Wide Travelling
A few weeks ago, I envisioned what the coming year would be like in a “Vision Board.” I got together with a small group and pasted magazine pictures and bold 48-point type letters to a cardboard placard showing what we would like to see enfold in 2016.
Psychic Powers Arise When You Believe!
Psychometry – the art of visualizing an energy force or spirit from a token or an object – really does work.
‘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
Diving like a Mermaid to Discover Life
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!
- “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.
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
Meditation reflections help heal the worst
Reflections opened a new world of understanding today. Years after a traumatic event, I can look back and see things in a totally different and healing fashion.
On my knees being grateful every day
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
Brewerytown never too far behind me
No matter where I go, Philadelphia will always go with me. I’ve taken the old neighborhood to combat in Vietnam as well as to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I let it shine in the courthouses of Philadelphia and the one and only house of pleasure I visited in Panama.
Reliving the presence of love again & again
I remembered what love once meant to me, and I thought I’d share it with those of us who might have forgotten it.
What I Believe Makes Me Who I Am
Who am I? What do I believe? And can I name a few of my beliefs?
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
Death is unfrightening once Wisdom grows
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’
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
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
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. 
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.
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.
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.
I have stories to tell from my past that brought me to this point, and I think they may help others to feel what I feel and to take action, even if that action is simply to refrain from acting or even thinking.
Continue readingDefense Attorney Regrets His Prosecution
All of my legal career involved defending someone charged with crimes or offenses against the law. I worked 20 years as a lawyer, trying more than a hundred jury trials, winning more than half of them.
But to be honest, my first taste of arguing the law came not as a defense lawyer, but as a prosecutor, one appointed by some colonel to bring charges against a buck private who broke a law and faced a summary offense for some minor infraction.
Cause 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.
While never detracting from the valor that Confederate Soldiers fought with in the Civil War, he offered a plain and simple truth.
Continue readingOpen 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. 
All senses call out to me when meditating
The smell of lavender and a hint of myrrh greet me as I walk into the meditation room. I had not expected my sense of smell to be the first one to experience such a warm and inviting welcome. I should not have been surprised. The olfactory system is the first sensory organ I usually use, and I’m not too proud to state I am usually led by the nose.
Continue reading
Contoveros 
