A dozen or so years ago,
I visited a Shaman.
He waved a large eagle wing back and forth over me.
He took me on a Journey of Soul Retrieval – we did not see the wolf which I am given to understand means that my Soul did not need to be retrieved. Apparently, I have all of it with me – so that’s a relief!
He danced and chanted and drank some green juice from a glass bottle with a long thin neck – then gargled and spit it across my body…
That doesn’t happen every day!
He explained to me that there is a group of Shamans from all over the World who meet in some sacred place — maybe somewhere in South America — once every fifty years to hold sacred ceremonies for several days during which they receive a Message from the gods about the World in the coming Half Century.
He told me that in the 1950’s when they had last met, the Message they received was,
“World Upside Down!”
More recently, just after the start of this Century, they convened once again and received the Message for this Half Century:
“World Rightside Up!”

Events of these past two decades – and in particular, these past three and a half years – may not make us feel that the World is Rightside Up! Quite the contrary, it feels we are through the Looking Glass, especially this past 100 days or so.
And yet…

I have not posted here much lately, as I have been steadfastly focusing on a Dream Come True!
GRATEFUL READY OPEN WILLING is a project I have wished to bring into being for eight years or so now. It is an idea I have of a safe space for Creative People of all kinds, Theater People, Performing Artists, and LifeLivers to be able to focus upon those attributes of the title and ways to activate those experiences in our Lives.
And now, it exists!
It is a FaceBook Group — not at all the form I would ideally choose. But based on the current reality of what I like to call “my technological prowess,” it is the medium available to me.
GRATEFUL READY OPEN WILLING is now also a Facebook Page, an Instagram Account, a Twitter domain, a YouTube Channel, a half-completed Website, and soon-to-be a Podcast…
It exists.
If you feel it would benefit you, I encourage you to head over to our various online hubs and join!

So we have been in this Social-Distancing, Lockdown Quarantine for three and a half months.
And suddenly there was this Gift of Time…
As I talked about in this past years’ Christmas Card Story, Time is the Greatest Gift – not to be taken for granted, but to be savored and appreciated!

It can be scary sometimes to take action on a Dream.
What if it isn’t perfect?
What if it doesn’t manifest to the ideal that we’ve had in our mind about it for Eight Years!?
What if the reality of it doesn’t match our fantasy of it – and does it ever?
We find the courage to make the Dream a Reality, and then the OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK doesn’t call. They may never find out you exist.
Or maybe it’s Good, but not Good Enough.
We must ask ourselves Good Enough for whom? And according to whose standards?
Risk is inherently involved when we Take Action on our Dreams – when we Face with Courage that which is before us to do!
And yet, these will never fester into regrets.
Only the things upon which we Do Not Act bring that particular kind of pain.
When we Act – when we try it, even just once – that is our experience of the Indomitable Human Spirit!
Triumphant!
We may or may not have “success,” however we may define that word at any given moment!
The Triumph is in the Doing!

There is a Native American Saying which translates:
Show Up!
Pay Attention!
Tell the Truth!
Let Go of the Result!

So, we need only do that! And let the chips fall where they may!

And Let’s Face it!
Every one of us who answered the question, “Where will you be in Five Years?” back in 2015, got it Wrong!

In actuality, it is more Wonderful than we ever could have imagined!
It is thrilling to be a part of this Great Shift!
Can you feel it?
The BLACK LIVES MATTER Movement has risen up to a more notable and powerful place than ever before – the unnecessary killings of black people in this country will now stop.
We are making them stop!
We – all of us together — are ending a Race War that has gone on for way too long!
Last week, dONALD tRUMP had a rally expecting a hundred thousand people – 6,119 showed up.
Commercial Real Estate Landlords want continued exorbitantly high rents – and tenants are moving out.
The old institutions are coming down.
New ones will rise up!

Enough of this Sameness!
Working every day with no time to Enjoy Life…
Paycheck to Paycheck – when the COVID-19 Crisis hit, it came to light what most of us already experience, that most Americans cannot survive even two pay periods!
The Government gave Americans $1,200 (That’s twelve-hundred dollars) each and Corporations $500,000,000,000 (That’s FIVE-HUNDRED-BILLION-DOLLARS) of our taxpayer money, and the tRUMP administration’s U.S. Treasury Secretary STEVE MNUCHIN thinks it’s okay to Not tell us how that latter amount was spent…
These things are Not Okay!
They never were!
But now, the People are effecting change!

There has never been a better time in the history of the Universe to Claim the Life that we Want!
This is the moment.
Create the Life you Want!
There is almost nothing that is set in stone now.
Across the United States, Monuments to Confederate generals are toppling, and towns named after Confederate Generals are being renamed…
In Germany, Monuments to Nazi War heroes are being taken down, and towns named after Nazi Generals are being renamed…
Just Kidding!
In Germany there ARE NO Monuments to Nazis and there ARE NO Towns named after them!

The American Economic System is toppling too.
Being alive in America at this point in history is being compared to being alive during the collapse of the Roman Empire
…except with WiFi!
Reaganomics didn’t work – this idea of giving all of the money to the wealthiest corporations, creating the 1%, and pushing the Middle Class down to the Poorest…
It didn’t work.
It held on as long as it could.
And now it is going away…
Bye, Evil Alt-Right Republicans!
GLORIOUS!
This is a GLORIOUS TIME!

We are only Twenty Years into this Fifty Year Cycle of “World Right Side Up!”
Not even halfway there!
And Just Look how the World is resetting itself!
All this tumultuousness is resetting the Planet for Right-Side-Upness!
And from what I have seen, we are heading in the right direction!
We are rebuilding it into something Better…
A Better Version of the World
…of our Lives
…of our Selves!
World Right Side Up!

And all we have to do is Breathe…
Center ourselves…
Trust…
Awaken…
Serve Others…
Help those in need…
Reach out to the Elderly or Isolated…
Give what we can to Help whether that is in the form of Service or Money or Time or Love…
EMBRACE THE FUTURE!
WELCOME THE NEW! And BETTER!
Delight in the Newness!
Enough Sameness!
We are done with how it Was!
Let us Live the Present Moment in which so many of these abhorrent things are Gone!
This is the moment!
In this moment, we can LOVE!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Let us be the LIGHT!
Let us Choose LOVE!
In this Season of PRIDE, Let there be LOVE is LOVE is LOVE is LOVE is LOVE is LOVE…
No One is Alone!
There is the African concept of ubuntu – or, I am because you are – which NELSON MANDELA described as “the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others.”

I am because you are!
You are because I am!
We are Together!
We Are!

Allow Space!
In Meditation, we find Space.
Meditate!
Allow Space for the Wild, Imaginative, Self-Contradictory, Confusing, Rebellious, Beautiful, Angry, Exquisite, Loving, Magical, At-Times-Ridiculous, Wondrous, Bizarre, Juicy, Joyful, Unbound, Untethered, Unmistakably Full Of Wonder Beings that we are!
Allow our Souls’ Depth and Breadth and Heights to Open…
Unfurl our Wingspan…
Breathe!
And let’s stop caring so much about the Judgements of Others…
Let’s Open our Arms and Embrace the Stinky, Filthy Mud-Covered Angels who have just returned from the War fighting for our Goodness and our Rights to Breathe!
Let us Awaken to who we Truly Are,
Not all the stuff that we Learned about ourselves or internalized from other people’s opining Jealousy…
But Who we Really Are!
in this Pause…
in this Space…

As for this All-the-Republicans-want-us-to-get-back-to-work-because-the-good-of-the-economy lines their pockets…
Notice the Billionaires who run these corporations – they do not want to go back to work.
They want US to go back to work!
That tells a lot about how this old system works.
The old system is no more.
Oh, it may take twenty years or another half-century, or maybe only another week or two…
But there is a New System
Which involves Fairness,
Healthcare for Everyone — Not tied to our Jobs,
Fair minimum wages,
Economic Equality,
And JOYFULNESS throughout the land!
Let’s Bring it On!
Let’s Welcome the New Day!

Here’s a clip from THE FAMILY GUY that used that same song — BACK IN 2009:

Let us allow the Expanse of who we Truly Are!
In CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, NEALE DONALD WALSCH, or GOD with whom he is communicating, explains that our Souls are Bigger than our Bodies.
We often think of the Body as housing the Soul.
But the opposite is True.
Souls are Infinite – therefore they are Larger than Bodies.
So it is actually the Soul which houses the body.
That is why when we meet someone special, we feel as if we already know them.
It is because our Souls, which are as large as the Universe, have already met and connected – and perhaps it took a while for our bodies to meet and catch up…
Our Souls are of Infinite Expanse.
Let us Allow Space…
Let us Allow the Space that we require…
The Infinite Space
For the Expanse of our Souls!
This Pause…
This Space…
Let us Allow it to Open Us to Who We Really Are!

There is much buzz about how regarding COVID-19, there is no second wave!
And that is True
Because we are STILL IN THE FIRST WAVE!!!
Cities are “reopening” in gradual phases.
Here in New York, we entered Phase II last week.
Deaths from Coronavirus have been brought down from 800 per day (in April) to 5 (yesterday)…
That is Amazing!
And Thank You, Governor ANDREW CUOMO for your stalwart Leadership through such difficult times!
I continue to stay put and reconfigure my Life into more the Life I would ideally like to be Living…
And I am Grateful for every Beautiful Moment!

Now!
Now is the Time to think about the things we are maybe not doing that we would like to be doing, and Do Them!
There is a Great Shift afoot!
It is Time for a great Shift in this World as we knew it!
It is Time to make a Great Shift in our Lives and
To Do the thing that we think we cannot do
Or the thing that we have never given ourselves permission to do
Or the thing we never had time for…

There is Time! Now!
Awaken!
Embrace!
No More Sameness!
Time for Something Different…
New…
Better…
World Right Side Up!

Now.

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