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A Common Form of Vampirism – Energy Banditry And My Experiences With It

Friday, May 29th, 2009

To continue the theme of the last several posts, I’ll share some new understandings on the subject of Energy-Banditry.  As a world traveller, I can honestly say that this doesn’t happen to me any more frequently when I’m out there on the road than it does when I’m at home.  In other words, it can happen all the time no matter where you are, though travel does bring you into contact with many more people, generally.  Often, you may find yourself on the food chain of someone in your family or within the circle of your long-term friends.  Suddenly, I’m beginning to believe that even the merest knowledge about this subject can change the atmosphere between you and someone who has long fed at your personal buffet table.

Here are a few of the components in this fascinating subject:

1)  The more spiritually open, or awake, you are, the more likely it is that you’ll be latched onto by someone who needs your dependable supply of inner force or energy.  That’s because spirituality makes you more energetic and perhaps the energy itself is of a more pure and higher level than someone who is simply a bouncy person.

2)  Those who must rely upon others for their energy needs are not bad.  They are born without the ability to generate enough for their own life and so, must feed upon those who can manufacture energy from food and sunshine in a normal way.  This becomes a negative when they take too much and drain the unwitting donor down.  A small amount will not be missed.

3)  Sometimes, this ability to understand and to move energy about, is a valuable skill which the general population needs because many people suffer from great stress, blocked energy, or an overabundance of it, resulting in joint pains and stiffness, various physical ailments, or hyperactive personalities.  Energy workers fall into the category of physical therapists who can release some of these problems.  Many of them are very effective psychic healers.

4)  Perhaps the day will come when this category of human being will be recognized and appreciated for their own needs and contributions, and the tendency to drain down those in their immediate vicinity will no longer be a reality.  This needs to happen because the situation is much more common than we have thought.

Here are some examples from my own life:

My younger sister, Kippy, is mentally-retarded and I feel sure that she fits the category of pulling the energy off of those with whom she comes in contact.  For many years, I’ve realized that I need days to recover after having been in her company; but because she lives in a group home about seventy miles away, I usually bring her over here for a weekend approximately once a month.  Then, I just allow for two or three days of downtime to recover after I take her home.  She is psychically demanding in that she talks constantly during every waking moment but I also feel an inner tension simply from being in the same room with her.  I didn’t expect that condition to ever clear up as it was simply a part of the reality of Kippy.

Because of my recent travels, I hadn’t seen her for four months when I picked her up last week for an overnight visit.  This came immediately after I had put two and two together, due to a book which had mysteriously fallen into my hands.  As I drove to her new group home, I did one of the protective recommended exercises and mentally squirted a thick fog between me and the passenger side of the car.  Now, whether it was that, or simply my newly-alerted psyche, or the fact that she can’t access as much forbidden caffeine in her new place, I have no idea….but the bottom line is that she no longer exhibited the objectionable symptoms and I could enjoy her visit.  The best part was that I still had my normal energy supply after I took her back to her home.   We shall see if this new condition holds for the long run but I feel very optimistic.  I like to think that on some mysterious level, her Upper Self took one look at my Upper Self and figured “Uh oh.  She’s onto me.” and drew back in feigned innocence.

With that surprising success behind me, I offered the book to my neighbor who is obviously the energy source for three competing individuals in his life.  He was very frazzled at the moment, but when I began to describe the symptoms, he knew that this was what was going on.  I look forward to hearing the outcome to see if his new knowledge has also changed the dynamics, possibly without his having to say a word.

Now, the other way that this condition is affecting my life is a long-standing remote-feeding situation which also fits the descriptions in this book.  Ka-ching!  The balls fell into place as I read that this was a regular practice by some skilled psychic vampires.

Several decades ago, I met a business man who had been a long-time family friend.  During a weekend convention, he paid me an extraordinary amount of attention culminating with an invitation to lunch after the event was over.  Of course I was flattered to even be noticed by this suave gentleman because I had never considered myself eligible for the social circles he frequented.  Because he was married, I had deflected several attempts to kiss me and had turned down an invitation to visit his resort condo.  However,  something must have occurred during our lunch date because suddenly I could hear his voice telepathically.

Did he “implant” me with something?  It must be so, because immediately after this lunch together, I could easily communicate with him over long distances.  How weird but also how pleasant and how nice to have this man’s continued attention in what I figured had to be a perfectly legal and moral way.  I have learned a great deal about telepathy through this whole experience.  Were we somehow “soul mates?”  Apparently not, because I now realize that I was just an attractive energy source.  It took awhile for me to learn how to discourage this connection but I began to wise up after he ignored me at all future meetings. The harpoon was in place.  No need to flatter the whale.

I know that I am still a banquet table for his remote feeds and can regularly feel the sudden painful poke of an invisible tube puncturing my subtle body, which is the surrounding energy field encircling the physical body.  I don’t always experience a severe depletion of my vitality, but sometimes I have suffered from a weird condition that was diagnosed as shingles for lack of a better basket to put it in.  The symptoms don’t really fit that ailment though I do have a rash (which shows up in random spots) and an extreme lack of energy for about a week.  Can this be, instead of a medical condition, the result of psychic overfeeding?

I have developed some defensive mechanisms, such as putting a drop of tabasco sauce on the reddened area where I know the intrusion to be, but it’s still very hard to get away from someone who has gained a strong  foothold.  Distance, such as being on the other side of the planet, makes it much more difficult for him but it’s still possible for this man to drain away my energy supply.  It’s not a big problem for me, as I’ve learned to deal with it over the years, but I’d really like to break the connection completely.

Ka-ching!  Ka-ching!  Ka-ching!  Go the balls of understanding into the slots where they can be utilized.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!  Next post, I shall reveal the name of this book.

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Who Are The Energy Bandits?

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

I once knew an angel named Angel who taught metaphysical classes in Aspen, Colorado, which I attended in order to learn more about my own burgeoning psychic development and inner understanding.  She used to describe the sensation of being in a public place, such as a crowded department store, and suddenly feeling drained of energy.  Some stranger had, in passing, caught her off-guard and sucked away the thin, invisible garment of mysterious force that we all, apparently, walk around with.   She taught basic skills to guard against this.

After describing the human chakra system, Angel said that many folks just walk around with their seven chakras spinning like bright, wide-open energy pinwheels.  That’s the equivalent of carrying a gaping pocketbook and will often attract a bandit looking for something to steal.  To prevent this, before going into public you should concentrate on your chakras and imagine closing them like a camera aperture.  You can also imagine wrapping yourself in a silver or gold hooded cloak for an extra measure.  Most people aren’t aware of their chakras at all, but an energy bandit is apparently equipped to recognize an open opportunity to siphon off the substance which he needs for his own health and well-being.

I have to confess that I never remember to do any of this but the lessons recently came back to me when I read a book written from an energy bandit’s point of view.  This book described such people as the real vampires, as opposed to fictional ones, who live in all societies and who cannot help the need that they have to draw down energy from people who can produce their own.  The author explains that they are born with this need and it is a normal situation for them, rather than any sort of disease or evil intention.  Many have no idea of what they are doing or why.  Others are aware and are quite good at secretly feeding from the general population.

I do plan to reveal the name and details of this book, but in order to prevent a quick dismissal on your part, I’m taking my time so that I can describe some of the serious contributions it makes to an understanding of a very misunderstood subject.  The puzzle pieces have been lying around for centuries but are so fragmented, scattered, and feared that I doubt if anyone has put them together before.  I think that this is a seminal study on the subject and deserves to be considered.  In addition to describing the situation in detail, this author makes a case for positive contributions which these people make to society because of this natural condition which they carry in this life.

Before you pass this off as foolishness, consider this:

1.  Are there certain people in your life who simply make you tired every time you are with them?  Does it take hours, or even days, for you to recover from their presence, even if you can find no excuse such as a thirty-mile hike or an all-night party.

2.  Do you know drama queens or kings who always seem to be in emotional chaos and constantly try to involve you in the solutions to their many problems?   Do they need your input on everything?  Your patient counselling?  Your strength?

3.  Is there someone whom you might not have seen for years, but with whom you sense some sort of telepathic connection which activates at odd intervals?  Do you sometimes feel exhausted and/or exhibit rashes and pains after having “a dream” about them?  Or when you realize that some thought connection with them has occurred?

4.  Do you simply have puzzling bouts of energy depletion for which you cannot ascribe a cause?

5.  Or, do you feel better after having been in an excited crowd, say at a concert or a rally?  Do you sometimes need to touch or to be around positive, bouyant people who give you an “uplift?”  Do you crave the focused attention of others every now and then?  Perhaps you are a vampire and don’t know it.  Not to worry.  It isn’t as bad as you think.

Stay tuned for more on this fascinating subject.

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Slurping Up Words, Any Words

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

I’ve been home from South America for exactly three weeks now and have caught up, in most departments, to a regular life schedule.  But, I’m observing an exaggerated tendency about myself to just pick up almost anything written in English and spend time staring at it, turning pages.  Newspapers, magazines, junk mail,  and books, books, books..the more unusual, the better.

Surely, this is because I was immersed in the Spanish language for a third of a year and found only an occasional interesting volume on shelves of various hostel book exchanges to satisfy my reading needs.  News and information about home came only from short blurbs on computer screens and that supply was limited, as was the time that I had to access it.  I remember thinking long and hard about whether to spend  $8 apiece for American news magazines down there and usually I’d decide to pass them up.  So now, when I chance upon one, it appears to be very precious indeed and makes me want to devour it in one gulp.  This is time consuming.

This current state of being will pass.  I call it Eye Starvation because that’s the way it feels to be deprived of the visual impact of your native language for a long period of time.  I remember, in Hungary, during my round-the-world trip, shocking myself because I had bought and devoured a pink London Financial Times newspaper just because it was printed in English.  Dry as dust it was, but I read it all the way through.

Ironically, I still haven’t replaced my broken-stem (temporarily fixed with another shape) glasses and I think that makes them sit a little bit torqued, probably contributing to eye fatigue.  Certainly not so good for my future eyesight.  This may force me to make an appointment for a new prescription sooner, rather than later but it’s the $500 price tag that has me putting it off.

Because of this passive tendency to slurp up words rather indiscriminately, I’m definitely in Input Mode rather than Output Mode and that affects my blog writing as well as my  interest in taking the first steps towards cracking my travel journals to see what material I actually have, and if there might possibly be a book somewhere in there.  Writing is not coming to me as naturally, at just this moment, as reading is.  This would explain why the last few posts have been lurching along trying to set the scene for some comments on one of the books that I have recently read and which provided an Aha moment for me.  I would like to describe those new realizations but it is controversial material and so I intended to back into it by using some real-life examples.

Not all of those were accurate, I have now learned from a kind reader named KT, who tells me that unsecured wi fi networks, or domains, would have no effect upon my own computer’s reception.  (See my two previous posts.) Actually, I’m glad to learn that.  For use in the analogy, I was trying to illustrate how other people’s invisible actions can have an unrealized effect upon our own.  In the future, I think it’s best to just come right out and say what I am talking about and not try to set up anybody’s perceptions in advance….to convince you in advance….because if you disagree, you will disagree anyway.

Trouble is, that my current Input Mode is having a dilatory effect upon my Output Mode.

So, I shall cut to the chase here and explain that the amazing mystery book I mentioned in those posts is about vampires.  “So, what’ s the big fuss?” you say. “Many books, these days, are about vampires…..Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer…  No big deal.”

But, this book is different because it exposes the reality behind psychic vampires or Energy Bandits, as I call them, and it explains that this is actually a real phenomenon, practiced by real people who are living all around us and who literally make up a true vampire population.  In fact, the book is not written for non-vampires, but is perhaps the first self-help book written for vampires.  Many of them do not know, at all, that their seemingly harmless need to be around folks who do generate a surplus of energy is caused by the fact that they themselves don’t have the ability to generate their own, but must take it from others.  It’s not blood from our necks that they want, but it is small doses of our lifeforce, nonetheless.  We usually never notice, but sometimes, someone will get greedy and then we fold up in a mysterious exhaustion until our system naturally regenerates our supply again.

So, this book provides much FOOD For thought and causes balls to drop into place, at least within my own mind.  I’ll try to do justice to it in a future post.  In the meantime…. I’ll keep on slurping….on written material, not your lifeforce.

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The Thick Plottens!

Friday, May 15th, 2009

(You will need to have read the previous posting for this to even begin to make sense…and then, hopefully, you still won’t have all the answers at the end, since I am purposely “stringing you along” in a guessing game of sorts.)

Previously, I was speaking of the secured wi fi domain running our household computers.  We have noticed that a neighbor’s new unsecured wi fi domain is beginning to cause us a few problems in logging on.  Some days, it never interferes at all.  Other days, our computers are trying to log onto the overlapping domain which for some reason drifts to the top of our cyberlist.  On those days, our computers also fall offline without warning.  I’m sure that many of you already have had, or will in the future have, similar experiences.

We’re dealing with an invisible substance here.  Computing depends upon a way to hook into the internet, and even though that portal is created by tangible objects, the most vital part of the equation is some sort of energy produced by this equipment.  It needs electricity to happen, but I don’t think the  necessary product coming from routers with blinking green lights is simply your garden variety electricity, but something more refined, some specialized computer-sort of energy, which only establishments equipped with wi fi can generate. And yet, every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a laptop needs that kind of energy. Otherwise, all they have is an expensive word-processing machine.

What would you do if your wi fi domain was wide enough to supply the picnic table in the park near your house with a signal?  What if you had no idea that this was so, but you occasionally noticed someone sitting at that table with their portable computer?  Even if they were using your signal, would it really matter, as long as they weren’t hacking into your computers or doing something illegal in your name?

(Forgive me if the analogy breaks down because of my flamboyant and freely-admitted ignorance of computer-speak.  I can see a problem with this argument if their computer might first need to be initialized  with numbers only you can provide in order to use your domain.  But, I’m going on hearsay about earlier days when cars would troll a neighborhood looking for domain bubbles so that a stranger could park within one and log onto the internet, obviously not requiring an identification number.)

What if the person at the picnic table was honest and above board and knocked on your door asking permission to slipstream your signal?  As long as you trusted them and felt that there was no risk, wouldn’t you say, “Well sure, podnah!  I have plenty.  Help yourself” though no one would blame you if you later took measures to reduce the size of your wi fi bubble, knowing that others might not be so aboveboard.

Okay, here’s another analogy.  Let’s say you have a vegetable garden that produces more than your family can ever eat.  This hits home because my dear snowbird neighbors, Walt and Dottie, have just departed for the season and left me to water their three tomato plants.  They always leave while the tomatoes are small and green but the crop is usually huge.  Their friends come to pick some but the remainder is still more than we can eat.  What if someone else started helping themselves to the surplus?  I wouldn’t mind at all, even if I didn’t know that they were doing it.  But, if they asked, they’d also get the above answer.

How about a neighbor who waters his garden with your hose?  (No, my neighbors don’t do that.) The point is, that this is going to cost you something.  If they sneak around, they are stealing from you but if they asked you for permission, you might even agree, depending upon their reasons and whether their use was going to be excessive.

What if you felt victimized in a reverse situation?  Let’s say that their sprinklers are sending water into your nearby screened patio enclosure and soaking your furniture….or your floor….or you.  Depending upon your mood and previous relationship with these neighbors, might you even feel attacked?  What if you learned that they had a reason for doing this, however bizarre it might sound to you?

Maybe the intrusion is even more intangible than water.  What if it’s noise: a loud TV or stereo, barking dogs, screaming kids?  How would you protect yourself against this?

(By now, please understand that we have left the arena of examples from my own life and I’m just thinking up all sorts of everyday situations that some of us might easily encounter, which will be useful when I finally get around to telling you what I’m actually talking about.  Thankfully, my life is serene and far from any such problems…although there is a picnic table in the park opposite my front door and my neighbors did leave behind some bountiful tomato plants.)

My point is that there are a myriad and one lifestyle situations that you can never know exist unless you hear about someone else’s unique experience.  And, our human nature causes us to flatly deny some of the more far out stories especially if they deal with intangible subjects and stretch the boundaries of anything we ever thought might be possible.  The most tempting and comforting set point reaction is to wave everything away if it shocks or scares us and to proclaim that this belongs squarely in the realm of craziness.  Slam, Bang goes the door.  End of story.

Well, because of a serendipitous and highly-unlikely series of events, a book has fallen into my hands which has educated me about many things that I needed to understand at this particular time in my own spiritual development.  It is a book which took much courage to write.  It is a book which I would not have opened a few years ago, nor would I have chosen to read it now if it had not planted itself squarely in front of my eyes.  But, I’m very glad to have learned the things which it has to teach.  Moreover, the courage demonstrated by the author’s candor has inspired me to open up a bit about things which I know and have not previously been willing to share.

So yes, this is a topic much heavier and more important than tomato plants, wi fi, or sprinkler systems.  But these ordinary and mundane examples from daily life actually each provide a harmless and prejudice-free common experience which could be seen as parallels to a much more delicate and poorly-understood human condition.

Even these examples may be far, far from the personal experience of some people, particularly those who are islands unto themselves with very little overlap into the lives of others.  Even those folks might not deny that such daily life events could well happen to somebody else and they will probably feel no need to split hairs about such a discussion.  But, let things wander out of the ordinary and the same sheltered ones might mount a great debate as to the impossibility of such and such a thing, mainly because they have never heard of this, nor experienced the complications that it can bring.  To them I say: “Oh, go water your tomatoes!”

I don’t yet know if I have the skill to do justice to this subject.  And certainly, the ultimate topic, which I have not yet revealed, isn’t actually a central one to my own inner life; though it’s a very frequent peripheral factor.  Because of this mystery book, I now have some new tools at my disposal: some new knowledge about which I was completely ignorant, as well as some old knowledge which I did have but saw from my own point of view; plus some good puzzle pieces to apply to my personal history and continued growth.

If I could learn so much from another person’s experience and willingness to share, then surely a few of you will benefit from my own candor.  And so it goes.  Stay tuned.

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An Analogy To Prepare You For Another Woo-Woo Story

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Let’s face it.  I love woo-woo stories much more than I love ordinary traveling tales or ordinary, around-the-house reports, which is about all I have going on at the moment.  So prepare yourself for as much woo-woo as I can muster up, if only to keep my own self entertained.

But, I’m going to play games with you as well, whenever possible.  This one will be a guessing game because the subject of this particular blog is not woo-woo; it simply sets the stage for one that will be along those lines.  This is a physical analogy to a non-physical reality which I have just now become aware of and am diligently educating myself about.  Later blogs will share this new understanding of mine.

Just for fun, see if you can anticipate what the subject of those future blogs might be.  Can you second guess me?

As a matter of fact, I am supremely unqualified to make any comments about wi fi domains (the topic of today’s blog) and I am also too supremely lazy to ask an expert to explain it to me.  So those of you who do know the science behind this will simply have to rearrange what I say to fit the actual case.  The rest of us will be able to use my description adequately to prepare for the analogy which it will eventually illustrate.  So, let’s play fast and loose here just to get the story told…because part of the analogy deals with an ordinary person’s common ignorance concerning all of these invisible factors.

I can’t remember when my son and I had our wi-fi domain installed to operate within our separate living quarters here at the house.  A year or two ago.  I do remember the technician making sure that this was a secure domain, covering roughly the area of our yard, so that it wouldn’t leak out across the street and possibly cover someone else’s house as well.  For one thing, I believe he said that if such happened that others could not only mess around in our computers and track the websites we might frequent, but that they could coattail on our signal and use our wi fi domain rather than subscribing to one of their own.

Previously, people have been known to jerryrig an electrical attachment or to steal someone’s television dish signal  to get around paying for their own, so I’m sure that free computer use has now become a common practice, as well.  In fact, I’ve heard of folks who drive around with their laptop trying to find domains that they can use; either those which are inadvertently spilling out into the street from someone’s house or more and more nowadays, in parks, libraries, hotel lobbies, coffee shops, and businesses, such as the big book stores, which openly encourage that.

Someday in the future probably, there will be citywide wi-fi domains for everyone’s free use, eliminating the need for household domains and it will be as normal as breathing the air of the surrounding atmosphere to simply use your computer everywhere and anywhere.  We might be billed monthly, as we are now, for any city utility.  No one will go without and no one will have to maintain their own private domain with its pesky instability.

Because it’s that pesky instability that is the center of today’s blog.  Nowadays, there are five other household domains within a small radius of our yard and one of those is unsecured.  I don’t know all the ramifications of that….whether they are exposing themselves to our possible snoopiness or usurpation, or whether they can invade ours.  I simply know that it’s much harder to get online because that leaking domain is being recognized by our equipment, which then tries to log on there but because we are located at the edges of their signal, all it can do is prevent us from using our account without going into the innards and manually putting our own domain first in line again.   Pain in the neck!

I’m considering walking around to the nearby houses and knocking on doors until I find out who owns the domain that identifies itself by its nickname on our list.  Then, hoping that when they realize there’s a problem that they will take the steps necessary to secure themselves.  I wonder what people living in apartments do about this, when there isn’t as much space between them as a house and yard afford?  This must happen all the time.

Okay, this is an unintentional and completely understandable annoyance, simply caused by a lack of information on the part of well-meaning and totally innocent neighbors.  When it becomes enough of an inconvenience to prompt me to get us all back on track, then I’ll probably get myself out of my easy chair and take some sort of action, even though I barely know enough about the mechanics of the thing to speak intelligently… or certainly to advise that neighbor about necessary securing actions, assuming that they happen to be just as clueless as I am about the computer realm.

In the meantime, we jiggle things a lot in order to eventually get online.  We are living with the situation.  But, what if a sixth domain appears?  Also unsecured?  At some point, our system might not work at all, in which case, the luxury of silence will no longer be an option.

A more malevolent form of such intrusiveness happens all the time to many people: identity theft or a slow siphoning away of a bank account or unauthorized usage of someone’s credit card.  This can go on until a  monkey wrench gets thrown into the equation.  Our recent economic meltdown exposed many such practices, just as a receding tide will finally reveal what lies beneath those innocent-looking waves.  Only then, will folks who are being deliberately preyed upon wake up to that fact.

Okay, now you are set up for my future blogs.  Can you figure out what the subject will be?   Do you know what I mean by woo-woo?  Stay tuned.

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A “Field of Dreams” Proof of Life After Death

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

This morning our neighborhood conducted its annual trash pickup event through all of our streets and some of us gathered at the park to receive trash bags, grabbers, and a bottle of water.  As I walked towards my assigned street, I had an interesting conversation with a woman about the death of a mutual friend who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer very late in the game and had lived only a few months after learning what was causing that painful “gas” in her stomach.  She had chosen to go through radiation and chemotherapy with the hope that this would at least, alleviate her suffering, if not prolong her life.

Of course, I’ll never know what decision I’d make in the same circumstances until that moment arrives, but Jean’s experience helped to confirm my own intentions not to go that route, when and if I learn about my own upcoming exit plans.  My neighbor heartily agreed and we swapped a few more stories in the same vein.  I explained that, at least in theory, I would view a terminal diagnosis as a “ticket to ride” and shared a little analogy that I’d thought up years ago to try to illustrate my attitude about death.  The analogy goes like this:

Being alive in this world is like holding a ticket to enter some great place, such as….Disney World…, but having to hang out for an indefinite period in an ante room which has been outfitted with some pretty cool things to do while you are waiting.  At some point, we are individually called into the real thing and can now enter Disney World because our turn has come up.  By that time, however, we’ve forgotten why we came and have become so thoroughly entertained by these little time fillers that we kick and scream and hold onto the doorjambs just to stay a little longer in the waiting room to the true reality.  How silly we must feel when we finally are yanked in, whether we agree to go or not.

My friend liked that little tale and then shared the true story about her own father’s death.  I’ll call him Leonard.  In his final days, he spent a lot of time talking to people who weren’t there.  In fact, her brother would have to call him back and insist that he focus on this world whenever he would have visitors.  Once, his head suddenly turned to one side and a smile lit his face.  “Oh hey, guys!  I wish I could come and play with you but I can’t get out of this chair.  As soon as I figure out how to get out of this chair, I’ll be right there!”  Then, he casually mentioned to his family that it was his old baseball team, here to get him for a game.

At his funeral, a friend suggested that his daughter telephone one of his old buddies about his passing and he provided a phone number.  A woman answered and hesitatingly asked the purpose of the call.  When she heard the name Leonard and that he had just died, she said, “You’ll never believe this!  Hospice is here because my husband is dying as well, and he has just now told me that his old teammate, Leonard, is here to get him for a ball game.”

My friend told her that the whole team had shown up to collect her father and both women enjoyed the idea of the big game that their men would be playing somewhere on a field of dreams.  The amazing timing of that suggested phone call was the best proof that either could have had that death is not the end of anything.

That sure was a neat conversation and I pondered it as I grabbered up about a billion coffin nails (cigarette butts) along the side of that neighborhood street this morning.

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Normal Is Nice

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

These days, I’m appreciating “normal,” after four months of living as a stranger in many countries,  in frequently unfamiliar circumstances.  At the time, I would usually be marveling to myself about how “normal” it felt to be walking around in some spot which I had always considered superlative when studying a map…say, in a small plane hovering over the Nasca Lines; scrambling among the ruins of Machu Picchu; or hiking in Tierra del Fuego, down there at the very bottom of the world.

At the actual moment when I was there, soaking in the scenery, THAT felt normal.  The truth is, that for each human being wherever we happen to be, is “Here” to us and everyone else is “Elsewhere,” if they are not on the scene with us.  We can’t avoid the reality of standing in the center of our own universe, even if we would really rather be elsewhere, such as back at home.

Have you ever pinched yourself and said:  “I’m at the Taj Mahal” so that you could appreciate the wonder of it all and not just let that realization slip away unnoticed?  I have, and I was doing it again as I enjoyed the Fall leaves down there at Cape Horn, as close as I’ll ever get to Antarctica.  It felt like other mountains & meadows spots I’ve been in, such as Colorado, but it was this extreme place on the maps of the world.  Magellan was here…although I understand that he stayed on his ship and didn’t walk about like I was doing.  The ground right under my feet was the place where all those fires were built by the pretty-much naked indigenous natives.  In that cold climate, they only slung animal skins over their shoulders.  No wonder they built so many bonfires!  Magellan called the place, “Land of Fire” when he saw them.

But, as wondrous as those exotic places might have been, I wouldn’t have wanted a life sentence to reside there forever.  In fact, I frequently caught myself wistfully remembering my very comfortable bed and my completely darkened, quiet bedroom back home if I was trying to adjust to the concave hostel mattress or a place far too light or too noisy for my tastes.  Sometimes, when facing a plateful of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol food I’d been eating for many weeks, I would think of my kitchen where I could chase up something appealing to me.

And I would often think of how much fun it would be when the day came for my Mother Tongue to surround me once more; when television and movies would suddenly make sense; menus would again cause my mouth to water; sidewalks would not be full of hidden problems for the footing; and the weather would be balmy and warm.

In exchange upon return, I’ve given up some things: a less expensive lifestyle; fabulous public transportation; easy shopping for lovely handcrafts and high-quality jewelry, alpaca and wool clothing, beautiful leathers, weavings of all sorts; gifts and decorator items; and reasonably-priced health care, as well as a constantly changing supply of very interesting and friendly people.

So, I’m back to normal again.  And I do completely appreciate the fact that life is pretty much the way that I left it.  I can slip right back into this old pair of shoes that is my homelife even though so many people in this country are undergoing horrendous changes due to the dislocations of this economy.  They might long for a normal that can never be returned to if a home is in foreclosure or a job has evaporated.  They might dream of a good bed in a nice dark, quiet bedroom that once was theirs, while sharing a crowded home with several generations in today’s sudden awful reality.

I hope that I can continue to pinch myself every now and then and say, “You’re home and everything is back to normal!”

And, I plan to continue blogging at the risk of becoming boring.  Normal is not always that exciting.  But, life is interesting and this seems to be one of the basic requirements for me.  I’m always starting something and predictably, it will probably be another book.  You’ve already been down that path with me once.  Heaven knows if I can make it sound original again in a blog, but maybe I won’t dwell on it here.  Could be, something else will crop up as well.  Stay tuned to find out.

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