Home in Austin, Texas

Home, where the music’s playin’; Home, where everybody knows my name; Home, where I’m not on probation; Home, where eveyone knows me and loves me anyway; Home sweet Home, with those who made me who I am today.  I love you Austin…it’s been Heaven…thank you for calling me here, if even for just a little while. 

Know this, Sweet Austin, wherever I roam, you’ll always be Home.

How Different Would Your Life Be…

If you knew EVERYTHING that happens is the result of the Universe conspiring tirelessly on our behalf, for our highest good?
How differently would we choose our thoughts, words and actions if we knew we were creating and manifesting our own reality with every breath we take?
What would life feel like if we noticed our feelings and judgments, and cherished ourselves for having them?
And if we were willing to see the perfection in ALL, could we then choose PEACE?
I’m willing.

Economics USA: The Crumbling of an Empire~~Our Time Has Come

We’ve known wealth.  We’ve known power.  We’ve known comfort.  We’ve known ease.  We’ve lived the illusion.  Living the illusion cost us more than we ever took the time to evaluate.  It cost us more than -dollars and cents.  Living in a super-inflated economy took its toll in relationships, in ethics, in priorities, in values and in character.

Many have warned us that our economy was on a collision course.  Two of my dear friends, Dr. Robert Jensen and Dr. Jim Rigby have long been describing this unavoidable occurence, when no legislation Congress can forge will circumvent the inevitable.  In Jensen’s book, Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, he writes encouragingly of  Maintaining political, intellectual, and ethical hope in the heart of the world’s most powerful nation.  Now that this Empire, this illusion can no longer be sustained, we the people have the enormous gift of being able to come together on solid ground~~claiming our humanity.  We have the opportunities to once again create time for our families and our neighbors…to take turns lending a helping hand.  We can use our two hands, our minds, our hearts, our backs to shoulder the labors ahead of us together.  We can learn anew to live closer to the earth, use less, replace more…our time has come.  To paraphrase the recent words of Dr. Jim Rigby,

…let us open every pore to the present gift. [encouraging us to "taste the soup."]

Now, more than perhaps ever in our lifetimes, we can appreciate all of the genuine abundance that we truly live with.  We can savor the breath that gives us life.  We can cherish the life that surrounds and sustains us.  Without a doubt, we will have less in that we no longer can delude ourselves or the world; yet, undeniably, we will have more.  Each and every day will bring new riches that money and inflation cannot buy at any price.

I look forward to working with each and everyone of my neighbors, regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation in life sustaining,  community building endeavors. 

I will consider it my highest priority to meet each day with joy in the privilege of being alive in this exciting time when the Empire crumbled and the people arose.

Our time has come; the perfect time for relocating~~for moving from the penthouses of our heads into the rich wilderness of our hearts.  This is the perfect time to live abundant lives of compassion, recognizing the worth of every creature, of every individual, of every nation.  Now is the time to “beat our swords in plowshares,” to mine our vast resources of courage, strength and determination in order to live not the illusion, but a life worth tasting.

For more from this author, visit http://itsawonderfulife.wordpress.com and http://ashtoraspeaks.wordpress.com.

For more perspectives like this, write Dr. Jim Rigby at jrigby0000@aol.com, visit Carol Creel at www.lifeworks-marketing.com.  You can also email Ashtora, izee4mee@hotmail.com.

On Death and Dying: “Dangling Priscilla’s” Slow Descent

Have you ever seen an disabled person suspended in mid-air–somewhere between heaven and hell by a HOYA ?  It’s the stuff my nightmares are made of.  I dangle Priscilla, a ninety year old invalid, by day and see nightmarish visions of her by night.  The real nightmare is hers.  She can’t take it anymore…she mumbles over and over during her daily ”danglings” that transport Priscilla from her bed to her wheelchair and back again…day in and day out.

Life forced upon her, Priscilla dangles, kept alive by a feeding tube and a catheter–in one bag and out the other; visiting her husband of over 60 years for several moments or several hours at a time, determined by various factors effecting her tolerance and tolerability.

By day, I dangle her in suspension between wheelchair and bed; by night, I see her dangling in her HOYA Sling, suspended in vast Universal space, between heaven and hell.  With her mouth drooping to the side and agape, painted in bright red lipstick, short lime green hair spiked, body useless and limp, Priscilla hangs in her Royal Blue sling, slumping to the right, utterly helpless and defenseless…at the mercy of everyone and everything…sometimes aware, but mostly not…this is my nightmare.  Could the flames of Hades be any worse?

A few weeks ago, she asked me if I was going to shoot her.  I looked her in the eyes and said, “No, Priscilla, not today.”  With a look of shock and surprise, she actually managed a lopsided smile and said, “I like you, you’re funny.”

More recently, Priscilla spoke out loud, “I’m so lonely and so bored…”  But now, she can barely mumble, “I can’t take it anymore.” 

I’m ready when you are Priscilla, because I can’t take it anymore either.

Tiny Signals–or ‘cell’-ular communication

Is there anything
So essential
As the tiny signals sent
From one cell to another
Acknowledging
That all is well
Or, that something yet
Is lacking
Or, to simply
Indicate
That now
Is the time
To breathe?
Ashtora, 2007