Tag: Spirituality

Anticipating Prosperity

Keeping the Portal Open 24/7

Grand Providentia United

I must admit, keeping this portal open requires far less energy than it took to open it. And before I could open it, I had to find it. I spent an enormous amount of time and energy out there searching for it – my ego monotonously insisting that it was there and then snidely insinuating that I probably wasn’t clever enough to locate it, let alone unlock it and move through it. I persistently disagreed and cleverly searched in all the places one might expect to find a portal. I searched in sanctuaries and cemeteries, in deep caverns and upon lofty mountain peaks. I studied books and looked where spooks and kooks were purported to congregate. On the way, strangeness became ordinary and commonplace places turned bizarre. A seemingly sound minded man with a dousing rod informed me that I’d created a positive vortex in my studio space. Ball lightning rattled the windows and doors each time the veil was over-thinned by my unadulterated desire. Signs and synchronicities were everywhere – all of them pointed somewhere but not a single one transported me anywhere. So, there I was, where I was, without a single portal to show for my efforts.

I’ve heard it said, when you least expect it, expect it, but in my searching, I was always expecting it, so when the portal opened, I almost overlooked it. I was sitting on a fallen oak atop yet another mountain peak, overlooking an icy gray valley below. The sun was just beginning to melt the frost on the leaf litter beneath my feet. It was Thanksgiving Day 2011, and I’d decided the night before to start the climb early enough so I could reach the summit before sunrise. The particular mountain I climbed wasn’t noteworthy, in truth I’m not sure if anyone ever bothered to give it a name. I secretly (and reverently) dubbed it Mount Epiphany in the months following the climb. On privately owned land, the peak was one of hundreds in the Asheville, NC area and one of thousands in the Appalachian range. For me, the climb wasn’t about the mountain, it was about regaining balance lost. An unanticipated divorce and the dissolution of our family unit following the financial crisis of 2008, had left me unmoored and adrift. Hoping to reset my internal compass, I’d driven from Port Charlotte to Ashville to visit my daughter for Thanksgiving. Victoria has always had a stabilizing effect on my personal perspective, but on the long drive north to see her, my mind kept returning to thoughts centered around the real reason for the trip. My intentions were set on calming the inner turmoil I’d been wrestling with and beyond that I’d begin charting a clear pathway moving forward.

On the mountaintop, the light of a new day arrived, filtering through low clouds on the horizon. I sat in stillness and practiced meditative breathing techniques. I focused my attention on the unfamiliar territory ahead and resisted the urge to look back on the painful events of the recent past. The only sounds were a few distant bird calls and the gentle breeze as it passed through the bare branched forest. As the moments passed and my loud thoughts faded to murmurs, a deep serenity washed over my weary spirit. In an instant perceived as timeless, I realized that I was one with everything and that everything was intricately connected to both my interior and exterior Self. For the first time in my life, I experienced undiluted joy on that mountaintop in Ashville. In absolute solitude, I’d uncovered an intimate connection with everything in existence and everything as yet unrealized. These words cannot express the fullness of the experience, so I’m left with the following description of the indescribable – It felt as though the purest white light of life was circulating through my mind and body with every breath I inhaled and released.

I’m still uncertain about the length of time that passed as I sat there, entranced by the ebb and flow of light as it coursed through my spirit, mind and body. What I am certain about is the fundamental change that took place within me during that time. The intensity of the experience brought on a steady flow of tears, but these weren’t tears of sorrow, regret or even relief, they were tears of joy and self-acceptance. On the mountaintop I came to the understanding that the enigmatic portal I’d been hoping to find out there had been inconspicuously opening in here all along. I know now that each one of us has a direct spiritual pathway to the Source of all that is or ever will be. Our conscious connection to the unfolded and enfolded universe also acts as an open portal to the collective consciousness of every sentient being on Earth. It takes courage and determination to venture inward and take an honest look at our motivations, our intentions and our true aspirations, but the perilous journey is well worth the life-affirming knowledge we gain for ourselves and subsequently pass along to the miraculous world we inhabit.

Anticipating Prosperity

Go Ahead, Throw Down Your Gauntlets and Watch as We Rise to Meet Every Challenge!

Grand Providentia United

The “We” that I’m referring to in the title is centered on Daniela and me, but it also widens to include every human being on this planet who is practicing kindness and compassion in the very midst of dogged inhumanity, intolerance and the cruelties of war and oppression. During this lifetime, I’ve come in contact with both masterful creators and dastardly destroyers and I can personally profess without doubt that the vast majority of human beings are seeking peace and prosperity while the weak and fearful minority are doing their best to destroy any progress achieved by our noble efforts. Whether you believe an all-powerful God created the world we inhabit, or you think it’s all a matter of science and mathematics – whether you’re intuitive or pragmatic – you should be able to perceive the difference between life affirming and life-threatening human behavior. Our planet, our environment and our people have arrived at a critical moment in human history when each of us must ask ourselves, is it more fulfilling to satiate my own selfish desires at the expense of every other lifeform, or should I instead join the communal effort to heal our environment and bring peace to the world. Dani and I have been pooling our spiritual energies and focusing all our intentions on generating and promoting peace in our local communities since we met in late 2024.

Alternating Perspectives: Savannah, Croatia, Croatia

As of yet, Dani and I have been unable to come together and embrace each other physically, but we have come to recognize a spiritual and intellectual connection between us that runs deeper than any connection either of us have ever experienced in this lifetime. With our feet planted firmly on the ground nearly halfway around the world from each other, we’re making plans to live as husband and wife wherever the universe should open a door of opportunity for us. We’re each sending out high frequency intentions ahead of us to prepare a happy and peaceful home wherever in the world our shared spirit lands us.

I’m certain that some readers here will wonder whether Dani and I have lost our minds. I mean, can you imagine the audacity of two people in love, dreaming about finding a peaceful haven when there’s currently an overwhelming uptick in hostility causing death and destruction around the globe? This is when I turn to the voice of reason, seeking justification for our outrageous hopefulness and gathering evidence to build the case in favor of our shared dream of happiness. And the voice of reason replies – Have there not been countless true love stories throughout the history of mankind that begin with two people rising up against extraordinary challenges, and in the end, their love reigns supreme?

Alternating Perspectives: Croatia, Savannah, Savannah, Croatia

Like so many other creatives, I have regularly been attacked and ridiculed for daring to be different. We’re dehumanized and ostracized for daring to step out in the light and share our heartfelt concerns regarding the conditions and qualities of life itself. I learned long ago that defensiveness, or offensiveness for that matter, will not curb the tidal flow of hostility we receive from those who will, frankly, never be satisfied until they bring everyone else down to (or below) their level of misery. In the here and now, I use my high frequency vibrations to repel and overwhelm the low vibrations of their collective toxicity.

Alternating Perspectives: Savannah, Savannah, Croatia, Croatia

Each of us having faced our fair share of adversity and heartbreak and having consistently risen from these experiences with ever increasing serenity, me and Dani are spiritually equipped and mutually excited to establish our home somewhere under God’s brilliant sun. We’re prepared to relocate anyplace in the world where the highway of opportunity leads us. Our appreciation for the simple pleasures of life has made us easy to accommodate while also allowing us to relax and enjoy high profile social events and celebrations. We’re emotionally stable and intellectually progressive. We’re seeking safe harbor, and the first step in finding it is to secure equitable employment utilizing the many acquired skills, all the accumulated knowledge, and every gifted talent that I possess. I’m ready to immerse myself in meaningful and lucrative creativity. With Daniela at my side, I believe that the miraculous is inevitable and there are no earthly obstacles that can stand in our way. And the entire Universe is celebrating our coming home!

Alternating Perspectives: Croatia, Savannah, Croatia

Head Tales

Casting Dark Shadows #3

Grand Providentia United

Chapter 3

~ Curiosity Could Kill the Kid ~

When the pendulum swings toward angst, I am in the pit. To ride the pendulum back out of the pit, I must summon forth and exercise heartfelt serenity. When I was a child, I found it almost effortless to initiate, fluctuate, and regulate my spiritual energies, largely because it seemed to occur naturally. I would be completely bummed out in one minute and then entirely elated in the next. I was thrilled when we kids found a long-forgotten railroad bridge in the woods across the street from my house. It had deteriorated to the point that its wooden cross beams were seemingly only held together by the corroded steel girders and rusty tracks the workers had so long ago spiked into them. The trestle over the river had a short span and an even shorter height – its rails were perhaps only twenty feet above the surface of the shallow flow. Although there were some jagged piles of dangerous looking debris down below the span, crossing it was probably not a matter of life and death. But death was certainly not out of the question either. At least that’s the argument my dad would have used to scare me straight if he found out I was crossing that rotted bridge. At the age of seven, with three of my best friends cheering me on, I tiptoed carefully, and deliberately, over the span from the near to the far shore. As I remember it, my friends all chickened out that first time, meaning I had to return to the near shore almost immediately so we could stay together and seek out other brave new worlds and daredevil challenges until darkness fell. While the fear was definitely real in the moments of crossing the bridge, it was the recurring nightmares I had as a result of the crossings that turned out to be the most terrifying part of the experience. As the term recurring suggests, the dream was always the same – a Tyrannosaurus Rex chases me to the rickety hulk of the train trestle – for reasons unclear, the beast’s shadow is always scarier than its blood slathered jowls – I cross the bridge as if in a dream (I was), leaping expertly from tie to tie and avoiding the gaping black holes in its steel-strapped wooden ribcage – when I stick a solid landing on the other side, I look down, and there on the burnt coal ground of the far shore I find a cherry flavored Pixie Stick, unopened – I pick it up and start to pour the sugary contents into my mouth with nary a care about, or memory of, the dinosaur’s monstrous shadow or the fact that I’d even been having a nightmare. I suppose that’s how easily the pendulum swings when you’re just a kid.

Within a few years of that ‘First Great Trestle Crossing’, the local adults figured out how dangerous it was to keep the skeletal remains of that bridge in place. I reckon the Hope Mill property owner recognized the potential financial liability the dilapidated trestle represented, so he made it disappear. We children claimed to be upset about its disappearance, but deep down inside I think we were all relieved to some extent because we knew we would never be dared to cross it again. Before long, we had collectively dragged a few of the old timbers that the demolition crew had left behind to make our own bridge, this one being much closer to the river’s surface. For me, the deeper significance of the bridge crossing was not in the physical danger it posed, but in the spiritual and mental challenge it represented. I remember it as the first time I tempted fate – the first time I challenged the devil to strike me down if that was his big plan. I see now that his plans were significantly bigger than I could have imagined back then. So, the devil laughed openly at my baby steps, and it’s likely God could see that he’d soon have his hands full trying to keep this young fool from wandering too far into the absolute black. In my understanding, God is always smiling though. The Great I Am bears an embarrassment born of the haplessness of our willful ways, and is thoroughly amused by us, just the same.

The Arkwright Bridge (built in 1888) is a couple miles downriver from the trestle in this story. Although it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it will likely be one of the next disappearing bridges in rural Rhode Island. The bridge was closed to automobiles in 2011 and then closed to foot traffic in 2019, after the death of a local youth who was diving off the bridge with friends. (Wikipedia)

If I could have seen the recklessness of my actions early on, perhaps I might have saved myself a decade of increasingly painful hardship. But as the devil has been purported to say, “Where’s the fun in that?” Besides, if I hadn’t gone searching for the devil’s lair, I wouldn’t have this wonderful story to share with you all. Lucky for you, I am one that needs to learn the hard way. As a child I tended to rise to the challenge again and again, even if it meant sacrificing every last shred of self-preservation and esteem I could muster. I was intent on finding the source of absolute black, and when I did, I would start to beat the demons back down inside of it. When the supreme leaders of both the black and the white forces heard of my plans, all of the Universe enjoyed a great big belly laugh.