Black Madonna & Child,  Soweto, South Africa

Merry Christmas from Buenos Aires, Argentina! I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that this time has come once again. Unbelievable!   I know that time is an illusion, but really, time seems to have disappeared faster than a magician can say, "Abracadabra!"  I think it's appropriate for all of us to pause and consider the abundance that fills our lives.  You, my friend, are blessed more than you may ever realize.

Do you know how privileged you really are?

Take a moment and think about it. If you're reading this, that means you're literate, have a computer, maybe even more than one, internet connection that provides access to unlimited information, a desk, chair, electricity, the freedom to explore, the freedom to express yourself and the freedom to connect with others all over the world with the stroke of a few keys. That is pretty phenomenal! Do you know how many people don't have this? We must never take it for granted and yet, we do, everyday. My friends, you are a wealthy lot! Please know that. Give thanks and sing praises to a dancing God that you are living amongst a privileged class.

I love you, I love the world, I love life!

Love, Daniel

New Mexico




"I am making space for my unknown future
to fill up my life with yet to be surprises."

~Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat, Pray, Love

It is pretty amazing that the time has come for me to leave Hawaii.  I didn't see it coming.  On a whim, my partner applied for a position at the University of New Mexico and got it.  Now, we are off!

I must admit, much of this feels as if it is divinely appointed.  Everything just fell into place.  Admittedly, we were both psychologically, emotionally and spiritually ready for change.   I am simultaneously excited with anticipation and sad to be leaving Hawaii.  It is clear, however, that this is the right move.  It feels as if I am shedding an old skin, discarding outworn identities,  and moving into a new level of power and expansion.  I am ready!

My spirit is very adventurous at the moment.  It is time to move in a new direction, explore life in another location, expand my circle of friends, meet engaging people with stunning minds, abundant hearts and generous spirits, continue to pursue my souls evolution, and open myself to new and exciting experiences.  I must follow where my path leads me, and sometimes, the best direction to follow is one that is never anticipated.

Life is quickly moving forward.  While our things are being shipped to the Mainland, we'll fly down to South America to visit friends in Argentina and Uruguay.  We'll spend the holidays in San Diego and begin our new life in Albuquerque the first of the year.    

 

May we all find our own way into the center of our hearts - our true power - and give voice to what we really feel, what we really want and what we really need.  May we also engage the power of our hearts to compassionately hear what others are trying to really say.   

I receive a weekly quote and commentary from liberatefreedom.com  It's called Original Thinkers: Revolutionary Voices.  Check it out and sign up if you feel so moved.   I would like to end with the quote I received this morning that feels so appropriate:

"Each man has only one genuine vocation -- to find the way back to himself...His task is to discover his own destiny --not an arbitrary one -- and love it out wholly and resolutely within himself.  Everything else is only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity, and fear of one's own inwardness."

~Herman Hesse


Pursue your own heart,

Love, Daniel

November 1, 2006

Paris

Flew into Paris, blew through the city, had an astrology reading with Lynn Bell, savored a French dinner, walked in the rain, absorbed the vibe, took in the sites, rode the metro, traveled down memory lane, and offered gratitude to one of the most magnificent cities in the world. I love Paris and I think I always will.

Paris was the perfect way to end three months in Europe.  In 1984, I used it as a base as I traveled the continent for four months.  My dear friend, Cass, had a flat in the heart of the city.  It was magic!  Pure magic!  I was young, curious and learning how to sing, "La Vie En Rose" in French.

I was 22 then, and now, 22 years later, I am even more convinced -

life is like a spiral -

we go through similar and familiar events - each time experiencing it from a higher and more evolved perspective.

"Is there a remedy for the passions of the soul?
Brother, if there is one, I don't really know
Have I let my imagination run out of control?

October 22, 2006

A Thousand Beautiful Things


The Anointing Sun rising over the Ionian Sea

Every day I write the list
Of reasons why I still believe they do exist
(a thousand beautiful things)
And even though it's hard to see
The glass is full and not half empty
(a thousand beautiful things)
So, light me up like the sun
To cool me down with your rain
I never want to close my eyes again
Never close my eyes
Never close my eyes

I can always find the perfect lyric to express my mood, like the one above by the immensely talented Annie Lennox from her song A Thousand Beautiful Things.  Music has been my faithful companion this summer.  It is loyal, sensitive, loving, and deep, understands my pain, sparks my creativity and soothes my soul.  The photo is one of many taken during sunrise here in Badolato.  It would appear that nature has been granted the fast track to the soul. 

I love new experiences and my summer in Europe has been full of them.  Undoubtedly, each experience is immeasurably enhanced when I am willing to find the beautiful things in what could easily be interpreted as a cruel and ugly world.  I am committed to witnessing a thousand beautiful things even in the presence of that which is dreadful and inhumane.  I am learning that sometimes, beauty is not the forfeiture of ugly but the inclusion of it.

For a moment, I thought I was losing my faith in humanity.  It's taking a concerted effort to maintain my optimism in a world that seems to be crumbling, and, is consumed in a chaotic heap of insanity.  To borrow the words of Marvin Gaye, "What's going on?"  You know what amazes me, how people go on with their daily routines while parts of the world are being ripped to shreds, people are killed and maimed, raped and persecuted and we just go on about our business.  What the hell are we doing?  How is it possible to be so disconnected?  Are we so desensitized that it doesn't even shock us anymore?  Why are we so mean to each other?  Forget our ability to love; we can't even be civil toward each other.  Too often, our capacity for simple kindness is overshadowed by our capacity for bigotry and intolerance.  Sometimes I'm so utterly confused by it all.  Yet, every day, in whatever way, I try to open my heart to another aspect of the human condition.  My mantra: "It is what it is"

While I try to practice acceptance everyday, some days I fail miserably.  I also diligently investigate the questions that occupy my mind.  Just as I look to see a thousand beautiful things, I need to ask a thousand more questions.

What is up with humanity?
Are we afraid of the truth?
What's with the fundamentalism sweeping the planet?
Why aren't there more free thinkers in the world?
How do we make sense of life when life makes no sense?
What's it all for?

Will there ever be a time when war ceases completely?  Who knows? 
Will there ever be an end to racism, sexism, classism, terrorism, elitism - and what I consider to be increasingly alarming - patriotism?  Who knows? 
Am I just too idealistic?  Who knows?

Some time ago, my friend Jose turned me on to Sam Keen's wonderful website:  Philosophy for Everyday Life at samkeen.com.  He says:

Human life is a journey whose end is not in sight. Searching, longing and questioning is in our DNA. Who we are and what we will become is determined by the questions that animate us, and by those we refuse to ask. Your questions are your quest. As you ask, so shall you be.

Questions are rich, magnificent sacred powers.  We need to invoke this power and ask some serious questions and keep asking them over and over again.  The challenge is that questions are mysteries and people prefer answers (even if they're lies).  Questions are precursors to change and people prefer consistency and security (even if it means others have to die for it).

Today, I question everything I know to be true.  I sit here ruminating in the vast expanse of the questions themselves.   Why do I believe what I believe?  Could the opposite also be true?  Is what I believe to be true just another spell?  What if there are no answers?  What if what I believe is a lie?  How many lies do I believe? 


Why do we perpetuate mindsets almost as archaic as ruins?

The mind, instead of freeing us has imprisoned us.  I so resonate with author Eckhart Tolle when he writes that we are at a time in our evolution when it is critical that we move beyond thought.  In his new book, A New Earth, he writes:

"Thinking is only a tiny aspect of the consciousness that we are."
"Humanity, instead of using thought became possessed by thought."
"Thought can at best point to the truth, but it never is the truth."
"They don't realize the limitations of thought."

I love the quote that says we have become possessed by thought.  Maybe our thoughts are not nearly significant as we once believed.  I find this absolutely liberating.  Instead of controlling my thoughts, I am now free to explore them with creative abandon.  Every belief, thought, concept, opinion, word or conclusion is just another structure that, somehow and someway, keeps me bound to an already existing interpretation.  My friend and therapist, Pratibha, calls it, frozen in time. 

A few weeks ago, my friend, Erik, came to visit me in Badolato.  We toured Calabria, driving through the mountains and along the coastline.  We engaged in long conversations about "peasant mentality" and how frustrating it has been for me at times dealing with the mind set of the people here.  While I have completely fallen in love with the rustic charm of this ancient village and have recalibrated my energetic system to groove with the medieval vibe, I still can't get used to the constrictive mindset.
It reminds me of my childhood in Hawaii.  I was very challenged by the "local mentality" which shares many similarities, if not everything, to "peasant mentality."  It is a tribal mindset that seems to lock people's minds in a very limited world view.  There is no room, or very little room, for people with broad gestures such as myself, because tribal mentality dictates that everyone conform to the group.

Since I've been here, I have become absolutely fascinated, again, as to why people (those who can,  in the supposed free world) don't expand and move beyond their present circumstances, or, do they at least fantasize about it?  Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to leave Hawaii.  I felt so confined by the limitations of the local mentality.  And, I couldn't understand why other people weren't.  Today, I realize that Hawaii wasn't so different and that the tribal mind is alive and well all over the planet; which leads me to the thought of freedom.  (By the way, Hawaii has since become everything I ever wanted it to be.)

What is freedom? - This wonderfully rich question that has been front and center in my consciousness ever since I participated in Alan Clements' World Dharma on line course.  Erik and I had a debate about it on one of our drives up the coast.  I supposedly live in the land of the free, right?  Good ole America, (I really do love my country).  But, just exactly, how free are we?  The fact that everyone thinks and believes we're free doesn't automatically make us free.  Now,  please understand that I am very aware that our country was founded on principles of freedom.  That does not, however, ensure our freedom.

Freedom is multidimensional. There are many layers, levels and degrees to that which we call freedom.   While I am technically free to move anywhere in the U.S., as an openly gay male, if I moved to a homophobic neighborhood in some hick town USA, would I really be allowed to express myself freely there?  I think not!  We are not free as long as there are those who violently impose their views, doctrines, and laws on us.  Imposition is not freedom!  And, might I add, why, please tell me why, we do not find it absolutely appalling that the "land of the free" is so busy imposing their values and doctrines on those who don't want them?  Is that not the antithesis to freedom? 

My faith in humanity is restored when websites like liberatefreedom.com are launched.  It's a wonderful opportunity to connect with people from all over the world, support something intelligent and explore the meaning of freedom.  Humans connecting with each other fosters peace. Please take the time to check it out.

Another website I discovered recently is hellocruelworld.net by Kate Bornstein.  She is the partner of my dear friend Barbara Carrellas.  Kate's new book is 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws.


A portal into the soul

My time in Badolato has quickly come to a close.  I find it hard to believe that two months have passed.  The days have disappeared and I have, indeed, been on a sacred journey - one that has taken me deep into the abyss, into the recesses of my soul.  I have no idea what it all means or how it has changed me, or is changing me for that matter.  Words do not escape me; there just are no words sufficient enough to describe the depth, immensity and vastness of this experience.  Life, the intriguing mystery that it is, sometimes moves us in ways we can never anticipate.  Be open.

Love, Daniel