Admittedly this has been one of the poorest Christmas’s economically for my self and many. This is not a complaint though, because counting the blessings, the miracles, and the connections this was one of the most beautiful ones literally! Many of my own wishes for my self and my loved ones either happened or possibly came in to fruition. Families are forever. Friendly love is still alive! These energetic blessings outweigh material objects in truth, the force of love. I have a good gut feeling for 2014. Bring it on!!!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
This Christmas
Monday, December 16, 2013
Earth’s School
A Life of Learning by Madisyn Taylor
Earth school provides us with an education of the heart and the soul.
Life is the province of learning, and the wisdom we acquire throughout our lives is the reward of existence. As we traverse the winding roads that lead from birth to death, experience is our patient teacher. We exist, bound to human bodies as we are, to evolve, enrolled by the universe in earth school, an informal and individualized academy of living, being, and changing. Life’s lessons can take many forms and present us with many challenges. There are scores of mundane lessons that help us learn to navigate with grace, poise, and tolerance in this world. And there are those once-in-a-lifetime lessons that touch us so deeply that they change the course of our lives. The latter can be heartrending, and we may wander through life as unwilling students for a time. But the quality of our lives is based almost entirely on what we derive from our experiences.
Earth school provides us with an education of the heart and the soul, as well as the intellect. The scope of our instruction is dependent on our ability and readiness to accept the lesson laid out before us in the circumstances we face. When we find ourselves blindsided by life, we are free to choose to close our minds or to view the inbuilt lesson in a narrow-minded way. The notion that existence is a never-ending lesson can be dismaying at times. The courses we undertake in earth school can be painful as well as pleasurable, and as taxing as they are eventually rewarding. However, in every situation, relationship, or encounter, a range of lessons can be unearthed. When we choose to consciously take advantage of each of the lessons we are confronted with, we gradually discover that our previous ideas about love, compassion, resilience, grief, fear, trust, and generosity could have been half-formed.
Ultimately, when we acknowledge that growth is an integral part of life and that attending earth school is the responsibility of every individual, the concept of “life as lesson” no longer chafes. We can openly and joyfully look for the blessing buried in the difficulties we face without feeling that we are trapped in a roller-coaster ride of forced learning. Though we cannot always know when we are experiencing a life lesson, the wisdom we accrue will bless us with the keenest hindsight.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
We’re All in the Same Boat
Excerpt from Different Ways of Navigating by Madisyn Taylor
We are all on this earth together learning and teaching together in many different ways.
People are people, so why should it be, you and I should get along so awfully?
We’re all in the same boat. We just have different paddles, and perhaps we find ourselves on different rivers. We all live in human bodies. These are the vehicles in which we move through our world. We are all made of flesh, blood, and bone, with brains, hearts, and lungs to power us. Our paddles—the tools we use to move through the world—vary, as do the bodies of water—the environments—in which we find ourselves.
Some of us use our high IQs to get where we want to go. Some of use our smiles, others use kindness, a gift with language, or athletic ability. Some of these qualities we were born with and others are skills we have learned. Considering this metaphor in light of your own life can be very enlightening. What tools are you using to get from point A to point B in your life? Chances are, you and the people you know have used many different tools in various combinations throughout your lives to get where you needed to go. Just as with oars or paddles, a balanced approach is best. If you rely too much on one thing, like beauty, to open doors, you fail to be well-rounded and you may eventually lose your equilibrium. And if you lose that one quality, you have no paddle at all. This is inspiration to develop multiple tools to navigate your world.
Some of us may be moving along paths that are like rushing rivers; others may be on a large, still lake. We have all felt, at one time or another, tossed about on a stormy ocean. Through all this, we are never really alone, even though it might seem that way. There is inspiration all around us in the form of other people making their way through the world, in the very same boat. Remember to look around you for role models, companionship, and encouragement.
Allowing Our Loved Ones to Be Human
Excerpt from Putting People on a Pedestal by Madisyn Taylor
When you put somebody on a pedestal it is giving away your power and saying you are not good enough.
Photography by Sean K. O’Hara of Nikolas Malstaff
When we fall in love with someone or make a new friend, we sometimes see that person in a glowing light. Their good qualities dominate the foreground of our perception and their negative qualities. They just don’t seem to have any. This temporary state of grace is commonly known as putting someone on a pedestal. Often times we put spiritual leaders and our gurus on pedestals. We have all done this to someone at one time or another, and as long as we remember that no one is actually “perfect,” the pedestal phase of a relationship can be enjoyed for what it is—a phase. It’s when we actually believe our own projection that troubles arise.
Everyone has problems, flaws, and blind spots, just as we do. When we entertain the illusion that someone is perfect, we don’t allow them room to be human, so when they make an error in judgment or act in contradiction to our idea of perfection, we become disillusioned. We may get angry or distance ourselves in response. In the end, they are not to blame for the fact that we idealized them. Granted, they may have enjoyed seeing themselves as perfect through our eyes, but we are the ones who chose to believe an illusion. If you go through this process enough times, you learn that no one is perfect. We are all a combination of divine and human qualities and we all struggle. When we treat the people we love with this awareness, we actually allow for a much greater intimacy than when we held them aloft on an airy throne. The moment you see through your idealized projection is the moment you begin to see your loved one as he or she truly is.
We cannot truly connect with a person when we idealize them. In life, there are no pedestals—we are all walking on the same ground together. When we realize this, we can own our own divinity and our humanity. This is the key to balance and wholeness within ourselves and our relationships.
Sending Love Ahead to Your Day
excerpts from Days of Affirmation by Madisyn Taylor
Send love to your day ahead and remember to stop and catch the miracles.
Photography by Sean K. O’Hara of Alexis Roth
Upon waking, many people consider the coming day with trepidation. Because of the natural human tendency to focus on what we fear or dislike, it is easy to unwittingly send a message of unease into the future that negatively impacts the quality of your day. However, while our lives are busy and frequently replete with challenges, they are also rich with joy and experiences worth savoring. We can attract this natural bliss into our lives by starting each day with a message of love. When you send love ahead to your day, that love will manifest itself in your interpersonal interactions, your professional endeavors, and your domestic duties. Tasks and circumstances once made trying by your own anxiety are transformed by your love, and you will find yourself approaching life’s subtle nuances with great affection.
Each morning, when you have cast off the fog of sleep, take several deep, grounding breaths and reaffirm the love you have for yourself. Speaking a loving, self-directed blessing aloud enables you to access and awaken the reservoir of tenderness in your soul. Before you leave the comfortable warmth of your bed, be sure to tell the universe that you are eager and ready to receive the blessings it has set aside for you. Then as you prepare to meet the day, visualize yourself first saturated by and then surrounded with a warm and soft loving light. Gradually widen the circle of this light until you are able to send it ahead into your future. If you are commuting to work, send love to the roads upon which you will drive, your fellow commuters, and your parking space. If you have colleagues who arrive at your workplace before you, send them love. Likewise, a day spent being a parent or addressing household chores can benefit from the sentiment that precedes you. Sending love ahead to everyone you will meet and everything you will do can ensure that your day is suffused with grace.
If you have difficulty sending love to those situations and individuals you deem particularly frustrating, consider that the warmth and tenderness you project can change your life for the better. Each morning, in sending this love, you will exercise your power to control the ambiance of your existence and to color your day with positivity.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Thanks Givings 2013
with recent events, from health issues to Nik & my seperation, it may seem hard to decipher through the bad and ugly to find any thing good worth being thankful! Truth is though, that I can do that! It is in doing so, that I do, will and can keep pushing onward.
With that being said, I do want to thank Nik for the past few years. It was not all bad, we were in sync, beautiful and a positive team in so many ways. It was through these times that I inherited a sense of much needed direction, and attention to home, stability and meeting agendas for fulfilling days. Staying active. Organized. Neat. Sadly, with all things said and done, I will miss our strengths as a couple and a team! But it was through this union that I have been influenced and inspired by you Billy. Time will reveal. Whatever you decide to do with all that's been said and done.
To my kids; Brianna, Devin and Gabrielle. And to Jocelynn, our newest member to the fold. It is, like it has always been, you! Oh, and ‘Skye’ too – Coming Soon! My Granddaughter-To-Be coming this January 2014!!! She'll see! My Happy!!!
My friends; Shelly, Joann, Kate, Mary, Pam and Tina. My Aunt Jan. My Aunt Junie. Aunt Tanya who I leaned a lot on the past year for an ear and consoling on several needed occasions. Especially my Dad & Step-Mother Dawn, can't forget them! All the people who made my 2013, including Nik's family that I loved, adored and hoped to be a member the same as I wished they felt the same.
I really hope I am not forgetting any one. Count your blessings. Focus on the positive. The good. Surround your self with good people and love energy.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday, but remember to remember to be thankful EVERY DAY!
With that being said, I do want to thank Nik for the past few years. It was not all bad, we were in sync, beautiful and a positive team in so many ways. It was through these times that I inherited a sense of much needed direction, and attention to home, stability and meeting agendas for fulfilling days. Staying active. Organized. Neat. Sadly, with all things said and done, I will miss our strengths as a couple and a team! But it was through this union that I have been influenced and inspired by you Billy. Time will reveal. Whatever you decide to do with all that's been said and done.
To my kids; Brianna, Devin and Gabrielle. And to Jocelynn, our newest member to the fold. It is, like it has always been, you! Oh, and ‘Skye’ too – Coming Soon! My Granddaughter-To-Be coming this January 2014!!! She'll see! My Happy!!!
My friends; Shelly, Joann, Kate, Mary, Pam and Tina. My Aunt Jan. My Aunt Junie. Aunt Tanya who I leaned a lot on the past year for an ear and consoling on several needed occasions. Especially my Dad & Step-Mother Dawn, can't forget them! All the people who made my 2013, including Nik's family that I loved, adored and hoped to be a member the same as I wished they felt the same.
I really hope I am not forgetting any one. Count your blessings. Focus on the positive. The good. Surround your self with good people and love energy.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday, but remember to remember to be thankful EVERY DAY!
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
WORD!
"Although himself frequently a target of guerrilla decontextualization, a major part of the meaning of Michael Jackson’s life was to help balance the accumulation of horrors with something closer to love in its most empowering and healing sense.
His presence in the world was a powerful ingredient within the overall antidote to the mega-tons of despair that can weigh human souls so far down that for millions (if not billions) life on earth feels more and more like death in hell. His voice remains part of the antidote. That’s antidote as in: anti-hatred, anti-war, anti-ignorance, anti-abuse, anti-oppression, anti-prejudice, anti-bigotry, anti-fear.
And just to be clear, to speak of Jackson’s voice is to speak of more than the acoustic timbre that radiated like vibrating sunlight from his lungs and heart and throat. It is to acknowledge that quality of genius for giving, living, serving, teaching, loving, exemplifying simplicity, and creating–– that comprised the essence of everything he strived to become.
For millions, the devotion to MJ is less about dedication to the singer per se than it is to the principles which he battled so admirably to embody: generosity of spirit, perseverance, aesthetic beauty, and artistic excellence. If musical entertainment and philanthropy were sports, Jackson would have been an Olympian"
~ Aberjani
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Pain For Michael
Special interest doctors surrounded this man. He never stood a chance. The fact he attended rehab, now alleged to have received a Narcan implant, and tried to ween off the drugs MULTIPLE TIMES as proven through this wrongful death trial against AEG shows, he truly tried to live off drugs and didn't use them for a euphoric high. I can't imagine his pain!
He fell 37 feet on stage and damaged his back to top all this off. No matter what people say, MJ wasn't a classic addict. He had severe problems paired with his addiction. He was a typical pain patient. To say he was a junkie means to ignore all of his VERY real ailments that have been laid out in the court of law.
How did we let this incredible human being slip away?
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Kriss Kross member Dead
ATLANTA (AP) — Chris Kelly, half of the 1990s kid rap duo Kris Kross who made one of the decade's most memorable songs with the frenetic "Jump," has died, according to authorities. He was 34.
Investigator Betty Honey of the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said the 34-year-old Kelly was pronounced dead around 5 p.m. Wednesday at the south campus of the Atlanta Medical Center.
Honey said authorities are unsure of Kelly's cause of death and that an autopsy has yet to be performed.
Kelly, known as "Mac Daddy," and Chris Smith, known as "Daddy Mac," were introduced to the music world in 1992 by music producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri after he discovered the pair in an Atlanta mall. The duo wore their clothes backwards as a gimmick, but they won over fans with their raps.
Their first, and by far most successful song, was "Jump." The hit, off their multiplatinum 1992 debut album "Totally Krossed Out," featured the two trading versus and rapping the refrain, the song's title. The duo had surprising maturity in their rap delivery, though the song was written by Dupri. It would become a No. 1 smash in the United States and globally, and one of the most popular of that year.
Their success led to instant fame: They toured with Michael Jackson, appeared on TV shows, and even had their own video game.
The group was never able to match the tremendous success of their first song, though they had other hits like "Warm It Up," and "Tonite's tha Night."
Kriss Kross Jump Remix
Earlier this year, the group performed together to celebrate the anniversary of Durpri's label, So So Def.
Michael Jackson’s Jam video featuring an ALL STAR CAST including Kriss Kross, Heavy D and Michael Jordan.
DJ Nabs w/ Kriss Kross 1992 OPENING ACT for MICHAEL JACKSON”S ‘DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR’
JUMP JUMP ANDY RAY!!! …Oh the memories!! I will have to share one day!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
random thoughts
Some times I feel like I owe more of my self.
Questions expecting to be answered
Yet, no one asking
Am I being a bit narcissistic?
What do my thoughts matter?
Maybe to some one
Perhaps not at all
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Scruffy, Scruffier, Scruffiest - More Than Just A Fad
Sean O'Hara (2010) Photog by Tina Zimmerman / Photographer
Article written by Marten Weber for the Huffington Post's Gay Voices on 01/29/2013
It's not just because I am on Scruff. It's not just because, spending much time in Asia, I sometimes get a craving for thick chest hair. It's a genuinely objective observation: Beards are back in fashion around the world. I've been to 18 countries in the last year, and everywhere I see hair sprouting on boyish cheeks.
There was hardly a beardless hunk at the big London dance party I went to in December. At the universities where I teach, young men are growing mustaches, goatees, full beards and every conceivable creation in between. The new computer game that my boyfriend is playing features seven avatars with facial hair out of a total of 10 avatars! Beards are the new tattoos. Beards are statements.
To be sure, beards have gone through many fashions. Just think of the handlebar mustaches of the 19th century, the clone look of the 1970s or the permanent growth fancied by the bear community. But I think this time is different.
I know you've heard that before, especially if you are a stock market investor. But even my broker, who is a mere 28 and a beautiful twink, is running around with stubble -- beautifully groomed, yes, but a beard nonetheless. It is different this time.
So here is my theory: Beards are a cultural response to the feminization of the world. I've written a lot about feminization and how much I love it (and dislike the term itself). Feminine values make for a better world, a world of dialog and a world without war.
Feminization pushes men toward a cultural masculinity. Suddenly, donning an apron and doing the dishes, pushing the pram and changing diapers, being sensible and sensitive to other people's needs and favoring dialog over the clenched fist are a sign of a responsible, grownup male. Fists and guns are for wimps. Real men discuss and analyze.
So what does the culturally masculine but somehow now de-virilized man do in response? He grows a beard.
Beards and muscles are so popular because men use them as symbols to assert the vestiges of the tribal masculinity that once allowed us to bludgeon our neighbors and rape the other tribe's women. It is sublimated masculinity, expressed in beautiful shapes and lines. Ingrown hair? The better! Suffering pain is also a sign of masculinity.
No, I am not entirely serious. Of course not. But the proliferation of facial adornments (much like bulging muscles) are startling. They are men's high heels; they are our way of saying, "Yes, I do the dishes; yes, I change diapers; yes, I prefer dialog over war mongering; but I am still a man."
And in that sense, they are most, most welcome. I'd rather have a society full of bearded diaper changers than a society of clean-shaven war heroes. It is no coincidence that some of the worst regimes in history -- the Nazis, the Italian fascists, etc. -- prescribed beards. It is no coincidence that most powerful men in politics and church are clean-shaven.
You can wear your violent male traits in your heart, or you can display them on your face. I prefer the latter. I am entirely in favor of bearded, gentle giants.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marten-weber
Friday, February 8, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
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