The following is what I’ve “cut out” of my soon-to-be-published book.  You’ll hear more about this third book being prepared for publication right now, by checking back here real soon.

Eating UP Love!

My first inkling that something existed beyond the antiquated worldview I’d been spoon-fed—the heaven-hell with God as King-of-Heaven scenario, force-fed to the unruly masses by our history’s religious leaders—was seeing the mystical works of William Blake (19^th Century) and Kahlil Gibran (20^th Century). These two, writers and artists (as I am, too), depicted we common humans not as angels with wings, but unclothed, soaring-through-air men and women—looking just like you and me—but flying, rising upward, escaping their stuck-in-the-muck understanding, floating freely—acting as if they know what real bliss is. These men’s works reminded me of the recurring dream of spreading my arms and being able to fly, a sensation I often had in early childhood, especially in dreams. So often, in fact, that by the time I was a teenage college freshman, long before I figured that I too, might one day actually call myself a proper artist and writer — I had the gall to strive to be Blake and Gibran’s heir.

My real search began in my mother’s garden as a toddler. There, I loved to hold buzzing, tickling bumblebees in my tiny clenched mitt, and wonder. Standing with my captured bee in my gentle grasp, I’d look up and ponder the bright sky and the cotton-puff clouds above, for long lengths of time, just looking, wondering. When I grew up, I began searching for what took my entire life to find, and which I could use materials to make art about, and words to describe stories. That higher perspective where I could sense being the closest to I call The Mystery. It is the greatest Mystery of all, the deepest comfort, the highest high I’ve ever experienced: Knowing that God, Aum, is within.

My mantra has expanded to—Love is the weapon of mass illumination—my life’s motto these days. My role as a spiritual activist is to remain secure and serene, resting in the loving, nurturing embrace of this God-energy that emanates from within. That’s why I keep my life’s (my boat’s) anchor firmly set right here, in Port Compassion’s safe harbor.

When I reflect on the urging-me-onward dream I often had, when my little girl’s limbs somehow grew wings and I furiously flapped, trying harder, again and again, to fly, even a arm’s length upward—pumping my wings crazily to escape the hideous monsters that chased me from below—I now realize that what I wanted more than anything, as that dreaming kid, was to come back down to earth. To stop escaping. To feel safe in my skin. But—I never could. I desperately flapped my skinny feather-less arms, working hard to stay airborne, hovering just inches above the hordes of pursuing monsters’ fingers and claws. Because I knew with all certainly that those demons meant to kill me.

reach for the stars, but stay grounded

That childhood nightmare sent me an early message. I’m sure I could have figured it out sooner had I met Grandpa Phil and talked over these dreams with him earlier in my life. As it turned out, it took decades for me to cultivate the courage, and learn the skills, to learn to fly mentally high enough—with my awakened mind—to glimpse my own life’s Truth. First though, I had to discover, and then practice how to live guided by my higher Self. This heightened perspective brought the freedom my flying dream had forecast, the Self-realization I’d always sought: to break the bonds of my lower self, by transcending my limitations.

Life’s journey has brought me full circle. I’m brave enough now to declare:

I Am a member of the Army of Love, and I’ll never settle for anything less than experiencing the bliss of Love, Truth, Joy.

We’re all the same, beneath our many outer differences. Deep within our human hearts, we are each a higher-Self, connected within and without, to the One-with-no-second: God within, which I call Aum.

Anything else—wondering, doubting, partying our brains out, believing in fairy tales, fearing an imminent planetary apocalypse, or any other kind of spiritual hijinxs promoted by would-be assassins of Love, those promote power leaks, like judging others—only wastes precious spiritual energy by creating holes in one’s life’s sturdiness.

There is only one indestructible lifeboat, big enough to fit all of us within, you and me, my brothers and sisters—we are in it together. That lifeboat’s name is the Human Family.

Our minds and hearts are joined. The key to our future, Port Compassion, resides within our an opened-wide vision. We are the bright rays of our blended humanity’s hope. Love is yours and mine, and all of ours to explore.

Enjoy the ride.