hi friends,

arwen greets the lady of new york harbor, they're from neustadt, germany

i am writing you from aboard Arwen, a boat owned by a German couple. Arwen Evening Star, the princess of “Lord of the Rings,” she’s a state-of-the-art, hi-tech sailing vessel,  47 feet, built in Sweden by Hallberg-Rassy. Dani and Jens, my friends, met each other when both, burnouts from corporate Germany, decided to give up the rat race of materialism and “careers” and head to sea! I am having such fun with them, because they are a cool combination of embracing the latest technology (Jens was a computer programmer who did well inventing a new printing process) with natural ways of living (Dani, a psychiatrist, defied all odds when she strengthened her body and mind, afer being diagnosed with a neurological debilitating disease early in life, and after years of being confined to a wheelchair, learned to walk and today is a woman who sails! a VERY challenging life indeed). These guys are great and a joy to be with.

Well, i finally finished the manuscript! such elation! such glee and deep satisfaction, plus an overall unreal sensation of “did I just do that?” The very last step of the years-long endeavor, was when i spread out all the many drawings i’ve been doing during this time of the book’s creation, some of which you’ve seen here on Lordflea Sings. The pictures, which I can’t upload here for you, today, because I didn’t bring my computer (aboard Arwen, we’re anchored off Cape Cod) were so astounding in their collective strength, and sheer beauty (i humbly admit, ahem) that i was filled with a tremendous wave of excitement, knowing that soon i will be sharing all this with the world. In the back of my mind i’ve been thinking of which drawings to use here and there, as the writing progressed. Looking over my accumulated work, the visual interpretation of the spiritual message i was writing as a story, i was filled with gratitude for the gifts that i’ve been given, for the skills i’ve taken to heart and have honed with such repeated dedication.

arwen up on drydock for bottom painting, etc.

Now is the time to get the work out to others. You may just find delight in reading and seeing the images, combined, as i do with lordflea sings.

last week, in fact, i had a wonderful email from a reader of this blog who wanted to thank me to “touching his journey” with some sharing I did (doesn’t matter which one) …. and i must tell you it made me feel all this work, all the hours of sharing my thoughts, learning to blog, uploading the images, letting the entire world into my head and heart—that one email made it all worth while. Thank you, William of NYC. And the funny thing is how he happened to “discover” my blog. I had used an extensive list of emails sent to me by a …. er, sort of friend who grew incensed when i sent out to his many contacts news of “Lord Flea Sings the Song of One”…..yet, a year later, one person, William, wrote to tell me thanks and to my mind, it balances out the irate anger expressed by the original list owner, over using his contacts without permission.

Hey! this is the digital age! Every list that comes the way of any of us is up for grabs. “All’s fair in love and ….” isn’t that the way it is, if you believe in what you’re doing? Even if other people might label you, call you names (ye, the list-owner did that!)

if you scroll back in my blog, and see the black-and-white ink drawings, you’ll get an idea of the illustrations that accompany my book (i’m withholding the title, just in case there’s a literary bandito out there, shopping around for a “hot” title–ha! self-protection is the armor of great art).

dani and jens, lovers of yacht arwen

A friend of mine is looking over the manuscript and if, IF, it’s up to snuff, in terms of literary presentation, story worth, etc. etc. he has offered to present it to an associate of his in the publishing world. So….i’m awaiting word from that connection before i go ahead and join the ranks of the minions of authors with books looking for an agent or publishing editor. Wish me luck, those of you attuned to the gist of lordflea Sings. This book is a spiritual transformation story that starts with promise, gets stuck in the muck, and finally emerges in the glorious Light ….. just like so many of our real-life stories, those of us dedicated to helping uplift humanity’s consciousness, but who first have to heal our own selves before we’re any use to anyone else.

Speaking of which, i am really excited about the upcoming publication of Carl Jung’s “The Red Book” a personal diary of his that was kept hidden from the public by his ever-conservative, guarding-the-old-man’s-image family. Ever since Jung began to dwell in the realm of the human psyche, as a psychiatrist, a protege of Freud’s who later became his adversary, Jung was fascinated with the power of the subconscious mind. In fact, “The Red Book” documents his personal exploration of that mysterious, mystical, ever-beguilding mental and spiritual realm of our humanity, in which we can choose to embrace our so-called “super-human” powers (of clairvoyance, of universal wisdom also called instinct, of interpreting the signs and dreams we are all given, but some of us either deny, don’t care about, or are scared of embracing—sorry super-hero fans: no flying, x-ray vision, or fire-starting powers here to talk of).  Apparently, from what i’ve read, Jung purposefully “induced” halluncinations and other personal-experiences behind the locked door of his study, to fully explore the inner realms of his psyche. When he left his study, no one, it is said, knew the internal struggle that Jung was subjecting himself to, on purpose. Did he use drugs? Did he do this with meditative powers, as the great sadhus of India? Did he do this to more fully understand the pschotics, neurotics and other mentally challenged people he was trying to help—even addicts for which he was famously renown for successfully working with and became one of the most influential people to head Bill and Bob, the founders of AA, toward their path of discovering a “spiritual awakening” as the “cure” for addiction/alcoholism? All these questions will lead me to grab that book as soon as it’s published by Norton later this month.

I personally think, from what little i know about jung and his theories, that he was simply fascinated with the realm of the unknown, what we call the psyche of a human, or the supernatural realm, in the outside world. I know I am. I will be curious to see what revelations he uncovered for himself in his quest. Certainly, the paintings he did to accompany his writings are strong enough to make one wonder how a psychiatrist could be capable of such proficiency, because they are as mystical, haunting, and mind-blowing as any i’ve ever seen (featured in NY Times Magazine article last week, i believe).

My own quest, written as a character-driven novel, is what my illustrated manuscript is about. Carl and I have a lot in common, as we do with all others on this glorious planet. I could call my unpublished book, “The Black-and-Blue Book” to match his Red one.

This planet should have been named “Water” instead of Earth, because there is so much MORE of it, on our spinning world. So here I am, writing to you down below Arwen, anchored off Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the guest of my two German friends, Dani and Jens, whom I met in St. Augustine when they sailed through last year. Bundled up in cold weather gear, we will head out at dawn tomorrow for Welfleet, Sandwich or Provincetown, and, if the winds are favorable, head out to the banks offshore Cape Cod to see if we can find some whales, our beloved cetacean creatures that need our human protection so much.

yacht arwen in new york harbor

For those of you who join the journey i document here on lordflea, i’m sending love and Light, and even to all others in the world, the skeptics, the people not interested in spiritualizing their lives—they’re the ones who need my love and Light the most, and thus I send rays of caring to all ….

lordflea