Today is a birthday, too... It is the real reason we celebrate this day...
Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Merry Christmas to all!
I got Bucky Balls today! Very addicting!
TC,
Michael
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley All Rights Reserved
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Airport Buffoonery
Yesterday while trying to snivel a free ride on Southwest Airlines from Seattle to Salt Lake City, I committed interstate social faux paux's in Washington, and Utah. In Washington, I walked into the woman's bathroom. By mistake, mind you. But I did it... And the ladies inner sanctum was empty except for, well, me... How did I know it was the ladies bathroom? Well, I certainly didn't have a keen enough grasp of the obvious to notice the sign outside the entrance that showed a figure with a skirt, also labeled "Woman's." No, as I entered the usually noisy woman's bathroom I was unknowingly in the "red zone," airline talk for clueless. Since I heard no females laughing or screaming at me, I stupidly walked in anyway.
So, the intrepid aviator of 35 years looked around, and noticed there were no urinals hanging on the wall. Now, being the steely-eyed trained killer of enemies of the state that I am, and like a flying brick in the forehead, I realized I needed to retreat to the "yellow zone," which in the airline biz means Joe Bag 'O Donuts is coming out of his self-induced village idiot mode. As Sun Tzu recommends in "The Art of War," now is the time to retreat with honor. I sheepishly and slowly turned around and walked out like it was the most normal thing for a man to do. You know, like I was conducting a health and welfare inspection while it was empty. "Ok, ladies, it's safe to use..." Sheesh! No one noticed, as far as I know, and I'm back in the "green zone" again. What a nog... ;-)
Next, in the inland empire State of Utah, I disembarked (always wanted to use that word) Southwest's Boeing 737, stopped at Starbuck's and bought some caffeine free Passion Tea, at Starbuck's. Is it supposed to be an aphrodisiac? Just wondering.... Next, I swashbuckled my way through the concourse like Captain Kirk enters the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, and onto the escalator I go, like I have always successfully accomplished before. While walking through the concourse, I had noticed that no one had left a message to tell me that someone will pick me up. While riding the escalator, I received a communications from Hali (daughter number three, code named H3) that someone will be there shortly. That is where I cluelessly jumped head first into the "red."
As I looked at the text on my wonderful iPhone 4, I let go of my roller bag with it's shiny stainless steel handle fully extended, computer bag with a few flying books inside, my food bag, and my camera bag, all began tumbling rather noisily down the entire length of the escalator head over foot all the way down to the bottom. Ok, they didn't just tumble, my bags crashed their way down the escalator. Did anybody get hurt? No, I was the only one on the escalator. Did anyone notice? Believe it or not, no one else was within eyesight of my gross and clumsy escalator antics. Entering the "yellow," I picked my bags up, and rode the escalator up again for the second time in about 30-40 seconds. Damage to my cargo resulted in a few dents in my cans of sardines in mustard sauce. There were no claps of appreciation, no hoots, no hollers, no expletives shouted in anger, nor cries of pain and anguish as my 50 lbs of steel crashed into an innocent escalator rider below me. Ok, back in the "green," again. :-)
Smiling at myself, I thought, it was an overall good day... Maybe something for the yellow stickies?
Still crazy (and squeaky clean) after all these years. Well, sorta...
;-)
TC,
Michael
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley
All Rights Reserved
So, the intrepid aviator of 35 years looked around, and noticed there were no urinals hanging on the wall. Now, being the steely-eyed trained killer of enemies of the state that I am, and like a flying brick in the forehead, I realized I needed to retreat to the "yellow zone," which in the airline biz means Joe Bag 'O Donuts is coming out of his self-induced village idiot mode. As Sun Tzu recommends in "The Art of War," now is the time to retreat with honor. I sheepishly and slowly turned around and walked out like it was the most normal thing for a man to do. You know, like I was conducting a health and welfare inspection while it was empty. "Ok, ladies, it's safe to use..." Sheesh! No one noticed, as far as I know, and I'm back in the "green zone" again. What a nog... ;-)
Next, in the inland empire State of Utah, I disembarked (always wanted to use that word) Southwest's Boeing 737, stopped at Starbuck's and bought some caffeine free Passion Tea, at Starbuck's. Is it supposed to be an aphrodisiac? Just wondering.... Next, I swashbuckled my way through the concourse like Captain Kirk enters the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, and onto the escalator I go, like I have always successfully accomplished before. While walking through the concourse, I had noticed that no one had left a message to tell me that someone will pick me up. While riding the escalator, I received a communications from Hali (daughter number three, code named H3) that someone will be there shortly. That is where I cluelessly jumped head first into the "red."
As I looked at the text on my wonderful iPhone 4, I let go of my roller bag with it's shiny stainless steel handle fully extended, computer bag with a few flying books inside, my food bag, and my camera bag, all began tumbling rather noisily down the entire length of the escalator head over foot all the way down to the bottom. Ok, they didn't just tumble, my bags crashed their way down the escalator. Did anybody get hurt? No, I was the only one on the escalator. Did anyone notice? Believe it or not, no one else was within eyesight of my gross and clumsy escalator antics. Entering the "yellow," I picked my bags up, and rode the escalator up again for the second time in about 30-40 seconds. Damage to my cargo resulted in a few dents in my cans of sardines in mustard sauce. There were no claps of appreciation, no hoots, no hollers, no expletives shouted in anger, nor cries of pain and anguish as my 50 lbs of steel crashed into an innocent escalator rider below me. Ok, back in the "green," again. :-)
Smiling at myself, I thought, it was an overall good day... Maybe something for the yellow stickies?
Still crazy (and squeaky clean) after all these years. Well, sorta...
;-)
TC,
Michael
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley
All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Darkness and The Light
Last night, on my deck I watched the eclipse of the moon. Light changed to darkness, then changed to light. From that darkness came light. It felt like a renewal for my soul...
I had a fire ceremony where I wrote on 22 yellow stickies, resentments, angers, hurts, and many of the hurts I've inflicted on those I love, and those I didn't love. As I burned them in my grill, the clouds briefly cleared and I could see the moon was totally eclipsed. The white smoke quietly and gently spiraled into the sky, taking with it many of my hurts, resentments, and anger. I felt that warm feeling in my solar plexus. Tears welled from my eyes, washing my cloudy vision away and leaving the clarity of pure love in my soul. It was cathartic. I loved the experience. I did good for me... and those I love. I'm beginning to understand that to change the world, we must change ourselves first.
I think to some, "Source" seems like darkness. Why? Because none of our senses can perceive it. Some call Source "light," because the less we obstruct it, the more radiant we are. It seems to me that the gateway to all understanding is that we have to remain in the darkness of not knowing, until we accept the light of knowing.
In my poem "Changes" I wrote this -
We exist together,
I had a fire ceremony where I wrote on 22 yellow stickies, resentments, angers, hurts, and many of the hurts I've inflicted on those I love, and those I didn't love. As I burned them in my grill, the clouds briefly cleared and I could see the moon was totally eclipsed. The white smoke quietly and gently spiraled into the sky, taking with it many of my hurts, resentments, and anger. I felt that warm feeling in my solar plexus. Tears welled from my eyes, washing my cloudy vision away and leaving the clarity of pure love in my soul. It was cathartic. I loved the experience. I did good for me... and those I love. I'm beginning to understand that to change the world, we must change ourselves first.
I think to some, "Source" seems like darkness. Why? Because none of our senses can perceive it. Some call Source "light," because the less we obstruct it, the more radiant we are. It seems to me that the gateway to all understanding is that we have to remain in the darkness of not knowing, until we accept the light of knowing.
In my poem "Changes" I wrote this -
We exist together,
and now I know it is.
I am the Light and I am the Darkness,
and of these things are me.
I love the warm Light,
and I love the cold Darkness.
Oh, how I do love them,
both, yes, you see.
I love them both
because they seem
the very same to me.
I knew it when I wrote the poem over a year ago, but couldn't verbalize why Light and Dark became the same. I know why now. Just like in the Matrix movie series, I've already made choices, and I'm slowly learning the "why" of them. The Darkness is as important as The Light. Without Dark's existence, Light doesn't exist, and vice versa. The Darkness may seem cold, but the cold is necessary to love the warm Light. It isn't accepting. Accepting is an egoic choice. Accept this, don't accept that. Emotional choices we make that are many times quite wrong. We people have no real good way to determine truth. But most people think that enlightenment is something we attain; it isn't. Enlightenment is surrendering to the known and the not known. Definitely not accepting. Not that I'm enlightened, I just surrendered to and fell in love with The Darkness and The Light. My love for both is how I surrendered and Dark and Light became part of me. They are both beautiful sides of the same coin.
My friend Garth says "Waiting, is..."
There is more that my wise friend Garth said, but to me, what Garth alluded to is that the waiting takes place in The Darkness of Not Knowing. I've learned that Patience is The Virtue of Darkness, and Love is the Kind Action of The Darkness. So, I wait with patience and love in The Darkness of Not Knowing for the shift of that waiting part of my soul to The Light of Knowing. Jesus'time in the Garden of Gethsemane was his Darkness and his Waiting, and his "death" was his Knowing and his Surrender; his shift to the Light of Knowing. He showed us how to wait, believe, and surrender to what is. He showed us how to Love What Is.
Name your what is; it is what we wait for in our innocence of not knowing, and in our wisdom of not needing to know, we can see that everything as it appears to us in the moment is always benevolent. Just like Jesus surrendered to his own death... Through the Virtue of the Darkness, we learn that nothing happens before it's supposed to. By the Kind Action of The Darkness, we are propelled to the attracting power of The Light of Knowing and it's sweet restoring warmth. It took me years, no, lifetimes, to believe and surrender...
Funny how things turn out... Finally, for me, the murkiness of the duality of dark and light, those primitive limbic thought processes in our low consciousness that is our curse, rose into the night, and into the ether, where God's mercy transmutes it into the pure energy of love.
Be kind to yourself and to others this season, and always...
TC,
Michael
P.S. Read the Bhagavad Gita translation by Stephen Mitchell
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley
All Rights Reserved
Monday, December 6, 2010
Facebook Compassion
A few days ago a Facebook friend posted this on his status: "Has anyone else noticed that some people here only use their Facebook page as a constant cry for help or venting mechanism but not much else. No good news, no constructive revelations and never anything fun. It's like their life is one bad status update after another." He was welcoming comments about his post. My friend got 68 comments and lots of "likes."
Most of the comments were not favorable, and in fact many were in downright flaming angry agreement with him. I think he was surprised at some many of the comments made by his friends. My belief is that he didn't post that because he wanted others to agree with him. I'm sure he was somewhat saddened at how his friends felt about "needy" people on Facebook. Certainly it was an interesting and telling compassion check of his "friends."
This was my response to my Facebook friend: "Perhaps a different point of view... My way to peace started with kind thoughts for myself. That took a while. And I do that now. That leads to kind thoughts for others, no matter where they are in life. I see their words, their pain..., their love, their fear, and their loneliness as different sides of good living. Some don't yet see the beauty of their darkness, and some only see light. Their fearful darkness is just their not knowing. Not knowing can be a very frightening thing. Accept their fearful ways. When you see their pain, you're just seeing yourself. Seeing yourself in others is also a very frightening thing. Love them for their darkness, and their light. Love them and love life with all of their distressing ways. Reality is never too big for an open heart and open mind. Take care."
Only one other person wrote something even remotely close to that out of 68. She said it more eloquently than I did with all of my humble comments. All the other responses were just his friends agreeing with him, and seeing themselves in each of their own self-distressing ways.
The young woman spoke with her heart, her spirit, and her loving grace. I have a deep respect for the woman who isn't even my Facebook friend. She showed her light quietly, and sweetly with only one word:
Compassion...
She's a bright loving spirit on Facebook.
Be kind to yourself... Always...
With many warm regards this season, and also everyday...
TC,
Michael
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley
All Rights Reserved
Most of the comments were not favorable, and in fact many were in downright flaming angry agreement with him. I think he was surprised at some many of the comments made by his friends. My belief is that he didn't post that because he wanted others to agree with him. I'm sure he was somewhat saddened at how his friends felt about "needy" people on Facebook. Certainly it was an interesting and telling compassion check of his "friends."
This was my response to my Facebook friend: "Perhaps a different point of view... My way to peace started with kind thoughts for myself. That took a while. And I do that now. That leads to kind thoughts for others, no matter where they are in life. I see their words, their pain..., their love, their fear, and their loneliness as different sides of good living. Some don't yet see the beauty of their darkness, and some only see light. Their fearful darkness is just their not knowing. Not knowing can be a very frightening thing. Accept their fearful ways. When you see their pain, you're just seeing yourself. Seeing yourself in others is also a very frightening thing. Love them for their darkness, and their light. Love them and love life with all of their distressing ways. Reality is never too big for an open heart and open mind. Take care."
Only one other person wrote something even remotely close to that out of 68. She said it more eloquently than I did with all of my humble comments. All the other responses were just his friends agreeing with him, and seeing themselves in each of their own self-distressing ways.
The young woman spoke with her heart, her spirit, and her loving grace. I have a deep respect for the woman who isn't even my Facebook friend. She showed her light quietly, and sweetly with only one word:
Compassion...
She's a bright loving spirit on Facebook.
Be kind to yourself... Always...
With many warm regards this season, and also everyday...
TC,
Michael
Copyright (C) 2010 by Michael G. Hesley
All Rights Reserved
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)