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The next video is part of the Ohio State University article that follows the video link. Operation Wetback: The Roots of Immigrant Deportations Today (06:33) Operation Wetback: The Roots of Immigrant Deportations Today - Origins/Ohio State University (April 2024) [from the article link that follows] The relationship between immigration and agriculture in the United States is deeply intertwined. For centuries, immigrant labor has been a vital component of American farming, supporting everything from fruit picking and vegetable harvesting to dairy farming and meat processing. However, recent shifts in immigration policy have created significant ripple effects throughout the agricultural sector, disrupting labor supply chains, inflating operational costs, and even jeopardizing the nation’s food security. The U.S. agricultural sector depends heavily on immigrant labor—especially undocumented and seasonal workers. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than half of all hired farmworkers in the United States are unauthorized immigrants. These individuals are often engaged in physically demanding tasks such as picking strawberries, milking cows, and harvesting lettuce—jobs that are notoriously difficult to fill with domestic workers alone. Without this labor force, many farms would struggle to function effectively. Farmers argue that even when they attempt to hire U.S.-born workers, few are willing to accept the grueling, low-wage conditions typical in agricultural settings. As a result, the industry has relied on a consistent influx of immigrant workers, both legal and undocumented, to keep operations running. When immigration policies tighten or enforcement becomes more aggressive, the available labor pool shrinks. This shortage has tangible consequences: crops rot in the fields, dairy farms reduce production, and food prices rise across the board. How Immigration Policies Affect the U.S. Agriculture Sector - Rebecca Black Law (2025) [from the article link that follows] Now in Trump’s second term, American employers can’t afford to pretend these workers don’t exist. Burying our heads in the sand won’t protect undocumented workers or the employers who will continue to rely on their labor, regardless of federal policy.  From the construction site in California, to factory in Georgia, to the elder care facility in Maine, undocumented workers are already here, already contributing, and already holding up critical sectors of our economy. They’re not waiting in the wings to be added to the workforce—they are the workforce. What they lack is not motivation or merit. What they lack is safety in their workplaces. This is where business leaders come in. Because when a system benefits from someone’s labor while denying them protection, that’s not just an ethical failure, it’s an operational liability. If you say you value inclusion, now is the moment to prove it. And if you say you believe in growing the American economy, now is the moment to prove it. Not with a statement, but with infrastructure which intentionally protects your most vulnerable workers, whether they have disclosed their immigration status or not. Here is how employers could support undocumented workers right now:  Create a silent support fund Train managers to lead without needing proof Expand emergency leave policies Redefine inclusion to include immigration justice See article for details. How Employers Can Support Undocumented Workers - Time (2025) Related February 2026 posts Polar opposites: Ice Nine & I.C.E. Nein...(*)...1st Unites...2nd Divides We begin with a light dusting of word play & transition to deeper drifts...shifts of consciousness...Eastern & Western...of course, there are tunes... I was a stranger...and you called I.C.E... Wandering from hypocrites to hip hop, we explore our current immigration situation... Safe LI Refuge for Immigrants and Refugees Offering Long Islanders a safe source for their immigration questions. Immigrants...We get the job done... In their own words, we hear their stories of unfair treatment... May our eyes be WET as we look at these faces of our fellow human beings... In the style of Visio Divina, a look at the faces of those trying to find a better life for themselves and their families... Huddled Masses...DEPORTED... The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus (01:27) #immigration #SocialJustice #SocialInjustice #EmmaLazarus #StatueOfLiberty Our country runs on the sweat of undocumented workers... NOW is the time for the ethical treatment of undocumented workers #SocialJustice #immigrants #UndocumentedWorkers #wetback #ICE

The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus (01:27) Related February 2026 posts Polar opposites: Ice Nine & I.C.E. Nein...(*)...1st Unites...2nd Divides We begin with a light dusting of word play & transition to deeper drifts...shifts of consciousness...Eastern & Western...of course, there are tunes... I was a stranger...and you called I.C.E... Wandering from hypocrites to hip hop, we explore our current immigration situation... Safe LI Refuge for Immigrants and Refugees Offering Long Islanders a safe source for their immigration questions. Immigrants...We get the job done... In their own words, we hear their stories of unfair treatment... May our eyes be WET as we look at these faces of our fellow human beings... In the style of Visio Divina, a look at the faces of those trying to find a better life for themselves and their families... Huddled Masses...DEPORTED... The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus (01:27) #immigration #SocialJustice #SocialInjustice #EmmaLazarus #StatueOfLiberty Our country runs on the sweat of undocumented workers... NOW is the time for the ethical treatment of undocumented workers #immigration #SocialJustice #SocialInjustice #EmmaLazarus #StatueOfLiberty

On the road in TIBET (Sept. 2024)... In his book “Eager to Love,” Richard Rohr says about our life: "It’s a series of road trips…" Though young in calendar years, John has wisdom beyond his years. As part of the C W Post band , he went to many corners of our shared world. So far, he's touched down in all continents except Africa and Antarctica . This current 3-week pilgrimage to China and Tibet was his second time in this ancient land. This time, he went with Linhai , his teacher, and fellow students to continue their studies of traditional Chinese medicine for healing… For several months this year I worked with Linhai - as he used a combination of acupuncture and other treatments. The guy has an interesting history: lived in China for many years, plays guitar and surfs - once showed me his phone with a surf cam for a favorite break in Rockaway Beach .  Looking for a song to express the heights of my admiration for who John is, I thought first of "Sitting on Top of the World: by Cream and others...But the lyrics weren't appropriate. That's when this one surfaced... Imagine Dragons - On Top Of The World (Lyrics Video) [HD] (03:10) H a p p y B i r t h d a y , Son ! Posting this on the 36th anniversary of your current incarnation...10/8/88 After midnight on October 8, 1988, John was birthed with music, as Eileen released him into our world. I was keeping vigil in the waiting area at Mercy Medical Center as "Morning has Broken" was followed by "Here Comes the Sun" forever known as "Here Comes the SON" ... Fast Food at 10,000 Feet...Where's the BEEF? While Chinese Buddhists are vegetarians, Tibetans value this animal in place of beef... So, when you go into a mountain McDonald's in Lhasa, Tibet you'll be ordering a... BIG YAK! Father-Son Pilgrimage Seeing the hot air balloons in the "On Top of the World" video recalled our father-son pilgrimage in the Summer of 2016 that included a visit to Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque for their annual Conspire Conference. Richard shown signing a book for John: ...and while in Albuquerque...a sunrise trip up, up and away... A cable "car" lifted us higher...Turns out, this is nearly the same altitude as Mt. Emei in China - see further down. "The SON also rises..." Our hot air balloon ride brought us over the Rio Grande River... We also passed by this roadside marker commemorating the person who introduced the yoga form I practice - Kundalini - to America - Yogi Bhajan . Now, back to China...  Old Man on the Mountain: Chops wood, Carries water  Daily life of monk at world's highest monastery (02:13) And this from my first spiritual teacher: RAM DASS...from his "BE HERE NOW"...In 1972, it guided me onto a spiritual path for the first time in my life... While there, Linhai, John and the others climbed a sacred mountain in China known as MOUNT EMEI. The trek to the summit is equivalent to climbing 100 Empire State Buildings. It took them 8 days as they stayed at monasteries along the road. They were guided by dragons...above...and below... A Qigong break: ...Then back to the path... Linhai, party of 10... Linhai is to John's right... A breathtaking journey to the top of Mount Emei (00:15) This is Mount Emei , Sichuan. Buddhist mountain, monkey paradise! (05:57) Then it's back on the road to Tibet... "My bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." The Child is the Father of the Man... William Wordsworth used the expression, "The child is father of the man" i n his famous 1802 poem, "My Heart Leaps Up," also known as "The Rainbow." This quote has made its way into popular culture. What does it mean? See "Source" link following the poem and "My Interpretation" below for my own take... My Heart Leaps Up --William Wordsworth   “My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.” Source My Interpretation... Since childhood, John has offered his wisdom to Eileen and I, bringing much-needed inspirations to each of us. For my part, I experience this exchange as him parenting me... This mutual interplay between generations is described in CSN&Y's "Teach your Children"... The roles reverse with these lyrics: and switch again... Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Teach Your Children - Playing for Change (04:15) Born to Wander...and Wonder... John was born with a wanderlust for life's roads. When he was christened (with 30 weight oil), a fellow parishioner, Frank Barber gave Eileen and I a card that I've tried to reproduce below: John's first "car"... We lived in an apartment with no parking space for this favorite of John's. He first enjoyed it whenever we visited Eileen's brother Jim, his wife Deb and their two sons Mike and Glenn in their Massachusetts home. As soon as we arrived, he bounded from the car, headed straight for their big backyard, climbed in and exclaimed: "This is what I came here for!" Online photo...no original... For his birthday this year, John's cousin Glenn sent him this cool article and video: Someone Made a Real Little Tikes Car That Goes 70 MPH - Nerdist.com Say "CHEESE...STEAK!" As soon as he got his driver's license, John and a fellow West Hempstead High School mate, got in his car and drove to the City of Brotherly Love for one of their famous Philly Cheese Steaks ... Later on, he bought an RV so he didn't have to leave home...he took it wherever he wanted to go. Like his Dad, he even did a cross-country trip. In my day, I did 4 in my 1965 VW Bus ...On one, took my brother and fellow surfer Mike . On my last, when I relocated to Callie , my parents asked to go with me (part of a reconciliation). When I returned to New York two years later, three of my sisters ( Julie, Mary & Cathy ) road shotgun. Music for Life's Road Trips... Yusuf's memorable road trip ode begins with this important question... As the tale unfolds notice how much baggage the traveler accumulates...... ...until he has a moment of awakening and leaves his LOAD for a different ROAD ... Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest and prolific author. With Sounds True , he has released the six-part audio learning program, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis , in which Richard explores the life and teachings of this beloved figure, and offers ways we can incorporate his wisdom into our lives. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Father Rohr and Tami Simon discuss the relevance of Saint Francis in today’s world, what he calls the “spirituality of subtraction,” Jesus’ teachings on nonduality, and what genuine contemplation might look like. (52 minutes) Link Yusuf / Cat Stevens – On The Road To Find Out (04:08) Rascal Flatts - Life Is a Highway (From "Cars"/Official Video) (04:58) Side Roads... Inspired by this post, Eileen and I watched the "CARS" movie tonight. My brother Mike had sent us a copy as a gift. Thanks, Bro! One of my favorite cars was a VW Bus named Fillmore and voiced by George Carlin . Best of Fillmore! | Pixar Cars (01:54) 2025 China Adventures... Let’s follow our SON: a China Cat Sunfollower… Let's follow John as he returns to the Orient in 2025 to continue his studies in traditional Chinese medicine... #music #humor #JohnTittmann #China #Tibet #HappyBirthday #CWPost #TraditionalChineseMedicine #Linhai #surfing #RockawayBeach #ImagineDragons #CenterForActionAndContemplation #Albuquerque #Kundalini #YogiBhajin #Zen #RamDass #BeHereNow #MtEmei #monasteries #Buddhist #WilliamWordsworth #CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung #CSNY #PlayingForChange #Eileen #FrankBarber #Philadelphia #PhillyCheeseSteak #VWBus #RV #Julie #Mary #Cathy #InayatKhan #MichaelSinger #MeisterEckhart #RichardRohr #SoundsTrue #TamiSimon #StFrancis #YusufCatStevens #subtraction #RascalFlatts #Cars #highway #road #Conspire #dragons #Lhasa #McDonalds #yak #Fillmore #GeorgeCarlin #MikeTittmann #MikeDuffy #GlennDuffy #LittleTykes #CozyCoupe #MercyMedicalCenter #CatStevens #Beatles #China2025

Hello! We're going on a journey to a far off land where we'll connect with our son John who, for the second year in a row, has traveled to the East, where he's continuing his studies in traditional Chinese medicine ... For much of his life, John has followed paths of healing. Eileen and I have learned much from him and are so grateful. "And you of tender years (Can you hear and do you care) Can't know the fears (And can you see) That your elders grew by (We must be free) And so please help (To teach your children) Them with your youth (What you believe in) They seek the truth (Make a world) Before they can die (That we can live in) Teach your parents well Their children's hell Will slowly go by And feed them on your dreams The one they pick's The one you'll know by" --Teach Your Children - Crosby, Still, Nash & Young (04:11) This post includes links to two separate posts with photos from this year's excursions to China and Tibet . At the end of the post there's a link to last year's September trip. On the Road to Find Out... If you're in a hurry to catch a bus...(from the mundane)...click any of these next 3 links to places "Furthur"... --Watch this Trevor Hall "Moon/Sun" music video that's later down in the post --Photos of John in China 2025 --Photos of John in Tibet 2025 Otherwise, let's continue on the road to find out... Those who know him, know that John spends a lot of time in the sun… The sunflower’s genus  Helianthus comes from two ancient Greek words, ‘helios’ which refers to the sun, and ‘anthos’ meaning flower. There’s even a Greek myth surrounding sunflowers, explaining why they always face the sun. Chinese Folklore Sunflowers in Chinese culture symbolize good fortune and longevity, reflecting the flower’s ability to turn towards the sun. Historically, they were valued by Chinese nobility, who consumed them as snacks, believing they could promote a long life. For more sunflower myths from around our shared world, please refer to the link under this next image. The Sunflower: Meanings, Myths, and Folklore - Petal Republic (2024) This next article provides guidance on using sunflowers in our spiritual practices. It begins with... The Sunflower’s Connection to the Sun Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are named for their unique behavior—they turn their faces toward the sun, following its path from east to west in a phenomenon called heliotropism . This trait has made them a powerful symbol of: Light and Positivity  – Just as they seek sunlight, sunflowers remind us to seek out the light in our own lives. Resilience and Strength  – They stand tall, even in harsh conditions, teaching us about endurance. Faith and Devotion  – Their unwavering focus on the sun mirrors spiritual devotion. The Spiritual Meaning of Sunflowers: A Bright Guide to Their Symbolism - Wisdom of the Spirit (2025) Music for Life's Road Trips... My 2024 post about John's adventures in the Orient included a lot of music...So, here are some new tunes... First stop via some English explorers... "Brave Helios, wake up your steeds, Bring the warmth the countryside needs." --"The Day Begins" - Moody Blues The Day Begins by The Moody Blues (05:33) ...Next, on our planet...Xavier Rudd guides us... When you feel love coming down on you Like a heavy wave When you feel this crazy society Headin' to the strand Take a stroll to the nearest waters and Remember your place Many moons have risen and fallen long Long before you came Xavier Rudd - Follow The Sun [official music video] (04:19) --lyrics for this song are at the end of the post -- Linhai , the leader of this and last year's expeditions, includes surfing and playing guitar in his medicine bag... He's the guy seated on the left sporting a blue hat. John is seated in the back row to Linhai's left. ...Moving further into the Cosmos...with Trevor Hall as our guide... Life is more colorfully vibrant when we travel with "companions" ** **word means "those with whom we share bread" Trevor Hall - MOON / SUN (Official Music Video) (04:03) --lyrics for this song are at the end of the post -- Trevor is among my favorite mindful music makers. First saw him live at Mulcahy's  on Long Island. John Tittmann: Unafraid of new faces...strange places... "Eight Miles High" --the Byrds Eight miles high and when you touch down You'll find that it's stranger than known Signs in the street that say where you're going Are somewhere just being their own Nowhere is there warmth to be found Among those afraid of losing their ground Rain gray town known for its sound In places small faces unbound Round the squares huddled in storms Some laughing some just shapeless forms Sidewalk scenes and black limousines Some living, some standing alone Eight Miles High - The Byrds (03:35) NOW...for this next one, let's tune into the energy of John Lennon's birthday (today, Oct. 9) and IMAGINE... ...G-d as a woman who's joyfully singing this number to one of her creation that has chosen to love HER... Weekend Prayer Warriors: These words are addressed to you...See, we gotta keep our focus for 8 Days a Week... Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine (Official Music Video) (03:48) Channeling the loving birthday energies from son John (Oct. 8) and John Lennon (Oct. 9)...I was greeted by this lawn sign today while out on my daily rounds through our neighborhood: "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion..." ...So says longtime friend Steve Bermont. We surfed together around the country and Steve was my Volkswagen  repair mentor...as he calls it  "playing with cars." In some posts, a particular Dead song emerges as I listen to my Muse and tell the story. In this case, "China Cat Sunflower"  provided a lot of the initial motivation to celebrate John's adventures... Grateful Dead - China Cat Sunflower by Jam Bands Video (04:56) ----->Grateful Dead Family: Click here to continue on exploring an annual festival "deadicated" to DEAD Chinese Sunflower gardens... Chanting for Tibet...Dead plus Monks... Enchanting Spirit of Buddhism : Music: Drummer for Grateful Dead backs Tibetan monks of Gyuto Tantric Choir, which will perform at USD’s Camino Hall. L A Times (1991) [excerpts from the article] " Hart and a few of his rock band colleagues formed the Society for Gyuto Sacred Arts in the late 1980s to support the monks’ efforts to draw international attention to persecution in Tibet ."   "Tibet was annexed by the Chinese in 1950. It has since periodically experienced devastating attacks by Chinese Communists . In the 1959 Tibetan uprising, 10,000 people reportedly died. A few monks escaped with their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama , to northern India, where they have been living in exile." The Tibetans and The Grateful Dead -- The Magical Buffet (2012) [excerpt from this article] " Mickey Hart , a drummer for the erstwhile Grateful Dead, is also a serious ethnomusicologist who now works with the Smithsonian Institution . Fascinated by the Tibetan monks’ multiphonic chanting, he put the infrastructure of the Dead to work and helped organize six sellout coast-to-coast tours with twelve of the Gyuto monks." Read on to hear about their being led to pray with San Quentin inmates... He toured with the Grateful Dead and now runs the Bay Area's biggest Tibetan monastery - SF Gate (2024) Yes...this "tail" includes a cat on the path to enlightenment... [Excerpts from the article] From the Himalayas to the Grateful Dead "At the age of 12, Donyo’s parents asked him if he wanted to be a monk, and he 'maybe accidentally' said yes. A few weeks later his father dropped him off at the Gyuto monastery. So began a life of service."  "At the time, he had no money. He lived, in his words, as an 'undercover monk,' delivering auto parts and working as a busboy. In 2000, he finally founded the Gyuto Foundation in a small house in San Jose . But the monastery’s history goes even further back, and it involves the Grateful Dead  — a group that Donyo intermittently refers to as 'the hippie guys.'" "The story goes like this: In the 1960s, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart received a tape recording of the Gyuto monks’ chants and developed a fascination. When the monks began touring the U.S. to call attention to the persecution of Tibetans , he sponsored several of their tours around the country." Related article: Monks' chanting begins around 06:50 as deep guttural utterances. Grateful Dead - "Drums/Gyuto Monk Chant" (Shoreline, 6/2/95) (13:40) Lyrics to "Follow the Sun" & "Moon/Sun" Follow the Sun - Xavier Rudd Lyrics   [Verse 1] Follow Follow the sun And which way the wind blows When this day is done [Verse 2] Breathe Breathe in the air Set your intentions Dream with care [Verse 3] Tomorrow is a new day, for everyone And brand new moon, and brand new sun [Verse 4] So follow Follow the sun The direction of the birds The direction of love [Verse 5] Breathe Breathe in the air Cherish this moment Cherish this breath [Verse 6] Tomorrow is a new day, for everyone And brand new moon, brand new sun [Verse 7] When you feel love coming down on you Like a heavy wave When you feel this crazy society Headin' to the strand Take a straw to the nearest waters and Remember your place Many moons have risen and fallen long Long before you came [Verse 8] So which way is the wind blowing? And what does you heart say? [Verse 9] So follow Follow the sun And which way the wind blows When this day is done Moon / Sun -Trevor Hall Lyrics Here we go again, creation Clap now for the jubilation Look at all that light you making Send it out no reservation Like a river we let it flow Still hot like a volcano Mother Earth still got my soul In the hot, in the cold, in the rain, in the snow Hey lo, wish on a butterfly wing Take that crown, put it on that king Sing like a child, no care for opinion Real love across our dominion Oh, so bountiful Pull it back and let it go Like ocean wave, we're powerful Constellation, magical So, this love still holds true Now what you gonna do? I won't give up on you I won't give up on you Between the moon and sun This life is never done I won't give up on you I won't give up on you, ah I won't give up on you, yeah Send up, send up, send up my love, ah I won't give up on you I stand up, gotta put my hands up Fruit down straw like Mauna Kea In the ocean, holy motion Ride that flow, I'll see you later In the park of Shangri-La I see my ma She's standing holy, all those colours filled with glory Open up and hear this story Oh, and this love still holds true Now what you gonna do? I won't give up on you I won't give up on you Between the moon and sun This life is never done I won't give up on you I won't give up on you This love still holds true Now what you gonna do? I won't give up on you I won't give up on you Between the moon and sun This life is never done I won't give up on you I won't give up on you I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you (I will follow you, yeah) I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you (I will follow you, yeah) I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you (I will follow you, yeah) I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you (I will follow you, yeah) I will follow you I will follow you I will follow, follow, follow you Yeah I will follow you, yeah MORE PLACES TO GET ORIENTED... John Tittmann: On the Road of Healing: China & Tibet (September 2024) #John #JohnTittmann #China #Tibet #TraditionalChineseMedicine #Furthur #Snoopy #GratefulDead #sunflowers #TheMoodyBlues #XavierRudd #TrevorHall #Linhai #surfing #guitar #Byrds #KatrinaAndTheWaves #DeadAndCompany #Buddhism #TibetanMonks #GyutoTantricChoir #DalaiLama #SmithsonianInstitution #MickeyHart #CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung #SteveBermont

"Peace on Earth ... Goodwill to all..." This story began last week as I was watching a video from one of my favorite children's choirs: The Barton Hill Children's Choir from Austin, Texas (song is near the end) . Listening to their refrain of the Grateful Dead's "He's Gone..." and seeing the baseball park venues in their video immediately reminded me of a departed friend and fellow Sunday School teacher, Mark Tarantino . And as I re-watched the first video that follows, I remembered another "Mark"...musician Mark Phillips ... SCORECARD PART I: Is there baseball in heaven? 1508-1512 Season Grateful Cubs Grateful Giants "Gone... but not forgotten... " PART II: Is there Rock & Roll in heaven? Why wait to find out... Exhibit A: Mark Phillips and the Broken Arrow Band... Exhibit B: Mark Phillips, Paul Ammendola and the Red Words Band... Exhibit C: Combo...Mark Phillips, Paul Ammendola and the Red Words Band... Exhibit D: Extra Sets...Grammy Award Winning Producer/ Engineer Larry Mitchell and Mark Phillips Rock & Roll Heaven "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion..." Postscript: Teach Your Children...to be GRATEFUL... PART I - Is There Baseball in Heaven? Eileen and I spent many wonderful years with the folks at this Malverne, NY church. In 2010, the choir got to perform at Citi Field . Seems we had someone on the "inside" - as one of our parishioners also named Mark worked for the Mets ... His tale continues in Part II . As I see all the faces...I'm filled with emotions every time I watch this video : ))) Here's Paul Ammendola taking the lead...You'll hear more from him in Part II ... Church of the Intercessor Choir at Citifield (April 19, 2010) (03:03) 1508-1512 Season God created the world in seven days, but it took Michelangelo four years to depict it on this remarkable ceiling. He was sent down to the.... SOURCE Grateful Cubs Check out their video announcement... SOURCE Grateful Dead and The Dancing Bears: where did they come from? (00:55) [from the creator] "Today the Dancing Bears remind us of the unity and celebration music brings to our lives echoing the legacy of Owsley and the Grateful Dead ..." Grateful Giants FLA@SF: Grateful Dead perform national anthem (Apr. 12, 1993) (02:34) "Gone... but not forgotten... " Mark Tarantino: "I'm gonna leave this broke down palace..." (Jan. 17, 2024) Is there Sunday School, Baseball, & Acting in Heaven? (Jan. 11, 2024) PART II: Is there Rock & Roll in heaven? Why wait to find out... Exhibit A: Mark Phillips and the Broken Arrow Band... Facebook Broken Arrow "Rock n Roll Kid" The Boulton Center (07:53) Below...Mark's on the right...layin' it on the line... Broken Arrow "Lay it on the line" (03:04) Broken Arrow Unplugged "Footsteps" (04:27) The Greatest Rock Band You’ve Probably Never Heard Of - Medium That story mentions this collaboration between Broken Arrow and another Long Island band: Red Words that featured Mark . Exhibit B: Mark Phillips, Paul Ammendola and the Red Words Band... Website Videos Facebook YouTube Mark, Paul and the rest of the band... Mark defies gravity as he "lays it down..." My Everything- Red Words (04:10) Exhibit C: Combo...Mark Phillips, Paul Ammendola and the Red Words Band... Here's a shot of Mark and his mate Mary C.M. Phillips on keyboard. She's also pens poetry...some of it found its way onto buses in PA... Check out this post. Broken Arrow/Red Words - My back pages by Bob Dylan at the Boulton Center 3/16/24 (05:00) Exhibit D: Extra Sets...Grammy Award Winning Producer/ Engineer Larry Mitchell and Mark Phillips Hanging with Mark Phillips of Broken Arrow (44:14) Rock & Roll Heaven In case you're still wondering if there's Rock & Roll in heaven... Rock And Roll Heaven - Righteous Brothers 1974 {Stereo} (03:38) "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion..." So says friend and former fellow surfer, Steve B...and he's right... Before continuing these reflections, P A U S E ...and remember friends, family and other loved ones who have passed over to the other side... Grateful Dead's 'He's Gone' by the BHC (06:22) We miss you, Phil (RIP 2025)... Grateful Dead - Broken Arrow (Orchard Park, NY 6/13/93) (05:22) [from the description] "This is a rare near-contemporary hit the Grateful Dead covered, joining Hey Jude from 1969 and Werewolves Of London in 1978. Robbie Robertson wrote the song and included it on his 1987 solo debut album. In 1991, Pop superstar Rod Stewart covered the song, and less than two years after its release, the Grateful Dead started covering it, sung by Phil Lesh. A very welcome addition to the setlist." - David Lemieux Postscript: Teach Your Children...to be GRATEFUL... Deuteronomy 6:7 SFV (1) Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. (1) What version is this? : )))))) #music #humor #EileenTittmann #MarkTarantino #PatCoviello #SundaySchool #MarkPhillips #PaulAmmendola #BrokenArrow #BoultonCenter #SundaySchool #ChurchOfTheIntercessor #Malverne #ChicagoCubs #SanFranciscoGiants #NYCFireDepartment #CitiField #BartonHillsChildrensChoir #AustinTX #PhilLesh #GratefulDead #SteveBermont #children #RighteousBrothers #MaryCMPhillips #poetry #Deuteronomy

Ending the old year with a hope for a change… …That in spiritual circles "hymns/hims" will be balanced by HERS FYI - "Elohim" is a Hebrew word for "G-d"...It is masculine. Although Elohim is a plural form, it is often used with singular verbs when referring to the one true God, indicating its unique usage in Hebrew. The term is derived from the root word "El," which also means deity. ( Source ) ORDER OF SERVICE God our Mother - poem by Allison Woodard A pastor from the Virgin Islands offers some wisdom… And a Fab Four from the British Isles… A “mother-load” of Marian icons Our Lady of Huntington Processing with Our Lady of Chicago The History and Origins of the Sacred Feminine Permissible "HYMNS" Full texts of two cited articles God our Mother - poem by Allison Woodard God Our Mother (03:01) Text to poem near the end of this post. A pastor from the Virgin Islands offers some wisdom… O come let us adore HER... O come let us adore her - Virgin Islands Times 2017 Reader: The text from this article is reprinted at the end of this post in case this article is no longer available. And a Fab Four from the British Isles… Paul McCartney, Times of Trouble, and “Let It Be” (2023) Word on Fire [from the article - full text is reprinted at the end of this post in case it's no longer available] When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be Whisper words of wisdom, let it be The song arose in times of trouble. War raged in Vietnam, riots rocked the Chicago Democratic convention, and students protested all over the world. Rev. Martin Luther King, as well as presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, both died by the bullets of assassins. It was a time of trouble for McCartney personally, as the Beatles were fighting over finances and heading for their breakup at the end of what he called “the crazy sixties.”  A “mother-load” of Marian icons [from the site] This site offers an interfaith view of the Virgin Mary as a vibrant expression of the feminine face of God, her connections to Mary Magdalene, Martin Luther, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and many goddesses. Black Madonnas Around the World - InterfaithMary.net Our Lady of Huntington A few days ago when I was reconnecting with friends from my younger days, spotted this ink on the man busing our table in a Huntington diner. He said it's a representation of our Lady of Guadalupe from Mexico . Peace on Earth…goodwill to all… Processing with Our Lady of Chicago My Muse leads me here "here...there...and everywhere..." and I love HER ... This next song came as a result of coming across "Mary Star of the Sea"... When I saw its thumbnail, I smiled - as it depicted another "El" : an elevated portion of the Chicago Transit Authority . Zwan - Lyric (Video Version) (03:18) Zwan’s ‘Mary Star Of The Sea’ Is Billy Corgan’s Lost Classic - UPROXX --a piece about the founder of Smashing Pumpkins . This is one of the tracks on their debut and only album "Mary Star of the Sea." The History and Origins of the Sacred Feminine [from the article - more at link] Around 4,000–2,000 BCE, global social structures began shifting. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists have observed a movement from egalitarian or goddess-revering cultures toward patriarchal systems , reflected in: The rise of male-dominated pantheons The marginalization of priestesses The demonization of goddess symbols A focus on conquest and hierarchy over fertility and nature For example, in monotheistic traditions that developed later (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), the concept of a singular male God became dominant. Yet, traces of the Divine Feminine remain, reflected in the following examples : The Shekhinah  in Jewish mysticism The Virgin Mary  and Mary Magdalene  in Christianity Sufi poetry , which often personifies divine love in feminine form Despite the shift, the Divine Feminine survived through symbolism, folklore, and hidden spiritual traditions. The History and Origins of the Sacred Feminine Permissible "HYMNS" The Beatles - Lady Madonna (02:34) Lady Madonna...cool interpretation... John Lennon helped write the lyrics, which give an account of an overworked, exhausted (possibly single) mother, facing a new problem each day of the week. [16]   McCartney explained the song by saying: "'Lady Madonna' started off as the Virgin Mary, then it was a working-class woman, of which obviously there's millions in Liverpool. There are a lot of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection." [17] The lyrics include each day of the week except Saturday, which McCartney only noticed many years later: "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." [14]  McCartney said his inspiration for the song came after seeing a photograph in National Geographic  magazine of a woman breastfeeding, titled "Mountain Madonna". [18] Speaking later about "Lady Madonna", Lennon said, "Good piano lick, but the song never really went anywhere", [19]  adding: "Maybe I helped him on some of the lyrics, but I'm not proud of them either way." [5][16]  Author Howard Sounes identifies both a relevance to McCartney's Catholic upbringing, and an autobiographical quality that belies the song's upbeat melody and delivery. He writes: "the lyric is also tender and personal, evoking the image of Mary McCartney as midwife, tending mothers and their babies in Liverpool as she had during Paul's childhood. The phrase 'Lady Madonna' also has a clear Christian meaning, of course, conflating Paul's memory of his mother with the Virgin Mary in what is a boogie-woogie hymn." [20] SOURCE (contains links) The Beatles - The Beatles - Let It Be (Official Music Video) [Remastered 2015] (04:02) God our Mother full text God Our Mother --A Poem by Allison Woodard To be a Mother is to suffer;To travail in the dark,stretched and torn,exposed in half-naked humiliation,subjected to indignities for the sake of new life. To be a Mother is to say,“This is my body, broken for you,”And, in the next instant, in response to the created’s primal hunger,“This is my body, take and eat.” To be a Mother is to self-empty,To neither slumber nor sleep,so attuned You are to cries in the night—Offering the comfort of Yourself,and assurances of “I’m here.” To be a Mother is to weep over the fighting and exclusions and wounds your children inflict on one another;To long for reconciliation and brotherly love and—when all is said and done—To gather all parties, the offender and the offended,into the folds of your embrace and to whisper in their ears that they are Beloved. To be a mother is to be vulnerable—To be misunderstood,Railed against, Blamed For the heartaches of the bewildered children who don’t know where else to cast the angst they feel over their own existence in this perplexing universe To be a mother is to hoist onto your hips those on whom your image is imprinted,bearing the burden of their weight, rejoicing in their returned affection,delighting in their wonder,bleeding in the presence of their pain. To be a mother is to be accused of sentimentality one moment,And injustice the next. To be the Receiver of endless demands,Absorber of perpetual complaints, Reckoner of bottomless needs. To be a mother is to be an artist; A keeper of memories past, Weaver of stories untold,Visionary of lives looming ahead. To be a mother is to be the first voice listened to, And the first disregarded; To be a Mender of broken creations, And Comforter of the distraught children whose hands wrought them. To be a mother is to be a Touchstone and the Source, Bestower of names ,Influencer of identities; Life giver, Life shaper, Empath,Healer and Original Love. Full texts of two cited articles O come let us adore her - Virgin Islands Times 2017 Aug.15 is the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, and although the etymology of the word “adore” raises the idea of prayers (in light of the derivation of “ore” in “adore” from the Latin “orare,” meaning “to pray”), many Christians in our post-Reformation era insist should be directed solely to the eternal triune God or persons therein (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). On the other hand, “adore” has come to take on a broader use, referring less problematically, but still in some sublime fashion, to honoring and loving — wholly suitable for Roman Catholics, Protestants and even some non-Christian people of faith. At the same time, my thesis this week is that a closer reading of the Christian Bible’s New Testament, and greater attention to context and to consideration of other aspects of the bibliology of Holy Scripture, reveal for us an astonishingly beauteous portrait of the God-bearing Mary, whom all, even in this postmodern era, might well — and I dare say should — adore and even emulate. Consider first this bit of “mother wit” (pun intended). Whenever my wife and I meet a really fine person, especially a fine young person like Jesus (only 30-something years old, we are told), who is other-directed and given over to the business of helping to make world a better place, we remark to each other, “Wow, what wonderful parents or maybe grandparents he or she must have or have had.” There it is, the theological point: While Jesus was wholly God, he was also, by definition of the Incarnation, fully human in being, in experience and in relationships. And so there was inevitably a mother, like St. Mary the Virgin, or a father like St. Joseph, and very possibly both — or nowadays a grandmother or grandfather, or some other mothering parent or person in loco parentis — someone imparting necessary, outstanding values and inculcating them in the Christ-like potential in youngsters around us. We should be those someones. There it is: The challenge for you and me: Run after them. Manifest and spread the values so critical for the health of communities around the world and for the world community. Save the children. Save the young people because, as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached at a church convocation in Philadelphia just three weeks ago, we will one day surely need those same young people to save us. Why adore and even emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary in particular? Well, because, according to the biblical narrative, she surely helped make Jesus the wonderful man and blessed Savior he turned out to be — dedicated, in his life and witness, to the core value of agape love (“Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down) which is love that is universal, unconditional, all-forgiving, leading and guiding in paths of righteousness. You and I need to be like that: living sources of good, sound values. It ought to be that when worshiping in our churches here, we learn and model distinctly valued behavior in the way we treat one another and in what we teach the generations ahead of us or behind us. We need to be like Mary — and in all probability like Joseph as well. God got it started and, as we know, brought Jesus’ character to full fruition. But surely Mama and Daddy played roles as well, just as we should. Again, why adore and even emulate Mary? Because of whom she bore. Mary is the Theotokos, the bearer of God, and just as important, the participant in shaping the character of this Jesus of Nazareth. Why should the name of St. Mary the Virgin resonate in particular in communities populated largely by descendants of the enslaved, and in institutions created for or administered by them? The answer can be found by looking at our African-American history, the historical, anthropological, sociological, and overall cultural contexts. We should remember that enslaved families in the oppressive, turbulent 18th and 19th centuries in the Western Hemisphere were held together by mothers and grandmothers, and aunts and great-aunts, while the enslaved men were forcibly sold off and scattered. In the active memory or deep in the culture of many African Americans, “family” truly means a nurturing mother and her generations of progeny including her adoptive or foster progeny. “Family” indeed has evoked all the adoration that we have seen in African-American culture through the years, wherein nurture and knowledge of God and of godly ways of living have always conjured memories of mother — celebrated with the special reverence that we have long given to Mother’s Day. Also remember the fury that can ensue in black culture when someone has spoken ill of another’s mother. That inevitably is followed by the threatening response, “Don’t you talk about my mama!” Earthy as the foregoing may be, I believe that such colloquies are history-based and culture-base, and entail well-earned adoration, stimulated in the honoring of St. Mary. The values, the character that Mary embodies in the biblical narrative are ennobling for all of us, and especially in today’s world. Was Mary blindly and meekly submissive? No, no, no. Mary was attuned to the Divine in faith. She judged God’s way to be the best way, and she acted boldly and bravely on that conviction, refusing to succumb to the shame of Jesus’ “untimely” birth. She taught and helped shape the Master and traveled all around Judea and Galilee with the indispensable bevy of women who nurtured, shaped, funded, and otherwise cared for Jesus and his itinerant Disciples. Consider our Most Rev. Michael’s brilliant homiletic tour de force, his “roll-call at the Crucifixion”: There she was: Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other Marys, boldly leading in faith and leading in humility before and after the Savior, defying the attempts of the world to express her value in only responsive, second-hand, reactive terms. What perfect modeling for women today and for open-minded men: preaching and teaching fearlessly while others have sought and seek — perhaps to this very day — to “half-step” newly gained freedom. Read your Bible carefully. There she is, behind it all yet ahead of so much: • Mary, the wise, the teacher of teachers, the bold and brave when others cowered, who even dares more than once or twice to correct or to speak up and question the Savior of the World. • Mary, whose heart is the model of love and mercy. • Mary, who models not only the agape of communal love, but also another form of love, storge love. Mary, mother of the world, who as such instinctively puts her all on the line for her children. • Mary, who implanted or at least affirmed the best ideas and ideals in her son Jesus and quietly in the youngsters in her neighborhood as well. Why in our bibliological study of Jesus’ life and ministry should we give particular honor to Mary? The answer is because, notwithstanding the relentless attempts by many to erase her from the dramatis personae, to relegate her to the proverbial “back of the bus,” Mary truly, with no personal aggrandizement, had the first and last say about Jesus — about what Jesus said, what he did, and what it all meant. My point here is as follows: With uniquely detailed knowledge of the facts of Jesus’ birth; with contextualizing understanding, years later, of his blessed Nativity otherwise and with detailed knowledge of critical scenes during Jesus’ ministry (for example, Jesus’ pre-adolescent colloquy with the elders in the Temple, the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the Crucifixion, Resurrection and day of Pentecost, in ways and to an extent, not experienced by others. Who do you suppose was present? Who therefore played an incomparably big role, instructing the evangelists, leading men and women in piecing together the biographical narratives that we call by the names of her interlocutors, for example, the men and women gathered in the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as Peter and the seminal contextualizer Paul? It must have been, it had to be: the Blessed Virgin Mary, who indeed lived enough years after her son to enabled her, a witness like none other, to contextualize, to give the profound, extra meaning of events in Jesus’ life. It had to be Mary, with notes, with interviews, with quiet correctives day by day, who recounted and taught. Let us adore her, especially in the manner of the Jewish community to which Jesus, Mary, and Joseph belonged, in which it is the mother’s lineage and identity in the community of faith that determines the nature of one’s membership, and in the manner of the formerly unfree and their progeny, who understood and even today understand, deep in our souls, what it means to be saved, and what it is to struggle to be heard, not from the back, but in the front of the bus, and seen in full glorious humanity. Yes, let us adore her and live into her example. Hail Mary, full of grace, o come let us adore her. Amen. — The Rev. Dr. Wesley S. Williams Jr., K.St .J., is bishop’s sub-dean for St. Thomas and St. John and Vicar of Nazareth by the Sea Episcopal Church in the Diocese of the Virgin Islands (U.S. and U.K.) and chairman of SRMC All Faiths Hospital Chaplaincy Paul McCartney, Times of Trouble, and “Let It Be” (2023) Word on Fire In a new podcast McCartney: A Life in Lyrics , Sir Paul McCartney talks about his most famous songs with the poet Paul Muldoon. The podcast is aimed at “dissecting the people, experiences, and art that inspired McCartney’s songwriting.” A recent episode explored the meaning of the lyrics of the title song of the Beatles’ last album, “ Let it Be .”  When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be Whisper words of wisdom, let it be The song arose in times of trouble. War raged in Vietnam, riots rocked the Chicago Democratic convention, and students protested all over the world. Rev. Martin Luther King, as well as presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, both died by the bullets of assassins. It was a time of trouble for McCartney personally, as the Beatles were fighting over finances and heading for their breakup at the end of what he called “the crazy sixties.”  But then McCartney found consolation. Although his mother Mary Patricia McCartney had died years earlier when the singer was only fourteen-years-old, she appeared vividly alive to him in a dream. She said to him, “Let it be.” He awoke, comforted and calm. The song “Let It Be” arose from this experience. Sir Paul realized later that he had actually encountered an inspiration for this song earlier in his life. As a school boy, a favorite and formative teacher made him memorize passages from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . In the play, the Danish prince Hamlet finds himself in times of trouble as “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and war looms with Norway. Hamlet’s father, Denmark’s king, has died suddenly. His uncle Claudius had taken both Hamlet’s widowed mother in marriage and the throne of Denmark. Hamlet intends to kill Claudius, and Claudius intends to kill Hamlet. McCartney connects the lyrics of “Let It Be” with Hamlet’s famous soliloquy: To be, or not to be, that is the question,Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummationDevoutly to be wish’d.  Is it better to be alive or not to be? To be suffering or to be in the sleep of the dead? To be or not to be? The answer, McCartney says, is to “let it be.”  But there is a still earlier inspiration for the song. In the podcast , McCartney notes, “I called her ‘Mother Mary’ rather than ‘my mom Mary.’ I knew enough to know, okay, we have a sort of double meaning going here.” This spiritual meaning of “let it be” arises from Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus. She found herself in times of trouble. The Roman Empire occupied her homeland, and there was constant talk of revolution, violent uprising, and conflict between Jews and Samaritans in the Middle East. Then, the Gospel of Luke recounts, an angel appears to her. She is greatly troubled at his message: she will conceive a son. How can this be? She is a virgin. If she is found pregnant before marriage, what will her fiancé Joseph do? What will happen to her? Despite the difficulties, doubts, and distress of her situation, she responds to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary’s “let it be” (her fiat ) is her consent to God’s mysterious plan for her in times of trouble. This spiritual meaning of the song arises in part because Paul and his brother Michael were, at their mother’s insistence, baptized as Catholics. Paul says, “We’d been christened (baptized) to save our immortal souls which I was always rather pleased with. I’m glad. . . . I thank her for doing that.” To be baptized is to be a brother or a sister of Christ. To be baptized is to be a child of Mother Mary. To be baptized is to be invited to cooperate with God’s mysterious plan for us and, in times of trouble, to whisper words of wisdom: Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be There will be an answer, let it be. #music #humor #poetry #Mary #AllisonWoodard #VirginIslands #UnitedKingdom #PaulMcCartney #Beatles #Guadalupe #LadyMadonna #LetItBe #Zwan #BillyCorgan #SmashingPumpkins #Catholic

Mike , seeing as today is the release date of your new song, your words and imagery are fitting, as the recent holidays offered opportunities to “go home…”come home”…to remember and reflect... As your returning person goes through the attic in her childhood home ... "She pulls down the attic stairs to photograph what lives up there" , memories flood her awareness… While she’s sad that she’s forgotten her phone, this omission will actually enable her to be more fully aware of each passing moment … of each item she beholds and her stored memories about it....as she won't be preoccupied with snapping photos of them. This is an example of my recent comforting awareness that everything I’ve ever experienced is still up “there”…and all that’s needed to access them is the right stimulus.   Mike , you sang, “A picture’s worth a thousand songs”...  Well, I like video with my music…reaches more parts of who I am. Thanks for posting this on Facebook with video!!! And road scenes always get my “wheels” in motion.  Your Facebook Post https://www.facebook.com/michael.duffy.77 Mike's Spotify link: “There’s a Grateful Dead song for every occasion” I often use this wisdom from a friend I know almost 60 years. In the late 60's, Steve and I and other friends began traveling around the country enjoying surfing and the rest of life. Here’s today’s example of Steve's savvy for Mike's new song. It's offered from my favorite kids choir in Austin, TX. It's a Grateful Dead song about the attics of our lives ... BUT, before we listen to the choir, some backstory...See, I want Mike the English teacher to give me a "Grate" grade on my "paper" (post). Not surprisingly, note the comments below in RED from my first reference article (link below): FYI - Robert Hunter co-wrote the song with Jerry Garcia . AND, David Dodd's site - "Greatest Stories Every Told" - is my Holy Grail for all things DEAD. [more at the next link] Subject: R. Hunter on "Attics..." This post is mainly in response to those who helped me out on the interpretation of "Attics of my Life" for my English paper . The paper is going great thanks to a lot of you. Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Attics of My Life" - David Dodd 'Attics Of My Life' by the Barton Hills Choir (04:25) About the Barton Hills Choir "Weir here and then we're gone..." With Bob Weir's recent passing, I'm including this section to honor his memory, [from the David Dodd article - David writes about his personal experience with Bob] A couple of years ago, I lucked into a musical opportunity that will probably never come my way again: I got to sing back-up harmonies for Bob Weir . OK, it was for Bob Weir and the Marin Philharmonic , and I was one of ten or so singers, but still. Very fun. And the highlight of that highlight of my life was singing the final encore, just Bob and us on the stage proscenium, a capella  — “Attics of My Life.” Bob Weir First Fusion- Attics Of My Life (01:03) Views from another seat in the house [from the link that follows] Saturday at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium hosted a gathering of two tribes who seldom – if ever – find themselves at the same event. But the pairing of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and the Marin Symphony provided just such an occasion, as Weir and Stanford composer Giancarlo Aquilanti collaborated to frame the music of the Dead in an orchestral setting, with stunning results. Although those in jeans and tie-dyed T-shirts appeared to vastly outnumber those in sport jackets, the music offered much to appreciate to both camps. A Gathering of Two Tribes May 9, 2011 by Dan.Reich    Extra Credit Mike's returning woman finds a cassette mixtape and then looks for something on which to play it. So, in light of his song's title ("Anna Log"), in case you're interested... Unraveling the Mystery: Is a Cassette Tape Analog or Digital?” (2025)   Next, in the song we hear reference to one of her finds: " a mixtape from a friend". .. [from the next link] Mixtapes have been a significant part of musical culture for decades, encompassing various genres and serving different purposes. From courtship tapes to break-up compilations, mixtapes have evolved over time to include a wide range of themes. Tim Walker from The Independent once highlighted their diversity, even mentioning the “tape you thought was a courtship tape until she mentioned her boyfriend” type. These collections of carefully selected tracks have taken on many forms, such as walking tapes, summer tapes, dance party mixes, and the classic “showing off your collection to a new mate” tape. What is a Mixtape? Rotary Phone Also in his lyrics is a reference to another attic find: a "rotary phone"... ...there are MANY more like this... #music #humor #MikeDuffy #EnglishTeacher #Facebook #Spotify #attic #analog #digital #GratefulDead #RobertHunter #JerryGarcia #DavidDodd #BobWeir #MarinPhilharmonic #cassette #mixtape #RotaryPhone

MENU My last cup of the year There's also something BREWING  on the outside... Coffee Therapy Listen to Morning Brew with your morning dew... Some poetry with your cup @ caffeinatedepiphanies.com Bilingual ODE to the sacred bean... "...in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there..." More Dead with your coffee? Grateful Dead Coffee House Jammin' Getting to the Brew (contact info) My last cup of the year On the last day of the year, I went to Witches Brew Coffee House in West Hempstead for my last cup of the year. SHAQ took my order and met my request for generous servings of whipped cream. Visitors are greeted by their delicious dessert display: A visual representation of my late Grandmother "Nanny" Julia Burns's wisdom: "Life's short...Eat dessert FIRST!" VOTIVE CANDLE: This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine... From my vantage point, I spotted the inspiration for this post (skeleton on right edge of the next image)... After dark... There's also something BREWING on the outside... Coffee Therapy These images line a hallway...While looking similar, each is unique. On my takeout "daze", as the crew is brewing a fresh pot, I wait here and play mind games by trying to name the different shapes of "things"...some walking, some crawling, some flying... TRY IT... Listen to Morning Brew with your morning dew... Morning Brew: Original Song - TKTalk (03:13) Some poetry with your cup @caffeinatedepiphanies.com Here's one of several posts about a friend's passion for coffee AND VERSE... A friend's inspiring poetry is riding PA buses...So,"The bus came by and I got on..." (2024) Mary's website: https://caffeineepiphanies.com/ Mary's mate Mark Phillips is a musician. He's featured in a new post: Get on your "Mark's"...Heaven on Earth...Baseball and Rock & Roll... Bilingual ODE to the sacred bean... As we wrap our hands around our "chalice"...listen as the poet inspires us... ode to coffee...oda al café - Poetry Foundation "...in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there..." Let's continue Clement Clarke Moore's poem......with this afterthought to the original post. Some pieces of St. Nicholas's skeleton have been preserved as relics in churches such as Bari in Turkey. Where in the World Are Santa Claus’s Bones? [from this article] The remains of St. Nick can be found on multiple continents. More Dead with your coffee? Morning Brew: The Grateful Dead And Verve Coffee On The Coffee Sprudgecast - Sprudge (7/3/25) --contains link to the podcast Grateful Dead Coffee House Jammin' A fan posted this a month ago as "“Grateful Dead • Cozy 1979 Coffee House Jam - YouTube “Grateful Dead • 11/30/79 Pittsburgh Winter Holiday Ambience 🔥🎄 Vintage AUD Recording (3:17:17) Getting to the Brew (contact info) 311 Hempstead Turnpike West Hempstead, NY 11552 Phone: 516-489-9481 Open Wed-Sun from 12 PM to 12 AM Yelp Wherevi #music #humor #WitchesBrewCoffeeHouse #coffee #WestHempsteadNY #Shaq #skeletons #chimney #JuliaBurns #Nanny #Sprudge #TKTalk #poetry #buses #MaryCMPhillips #MarkPhillips #CoffeeClaus #ode #SaintNicholas #relic

Somethings old...Somethings new... MANIFEST...OUR OWN DESTINIES Among my top 2025 epiphanies Follow the Star: "Sometimes we get shown the light in the strangest of places if we look at it right" Grateful Dead epiphanies (aka, "There's a Grateful Dead song...tale... for every occasion"***) Epifunny :))))) The Three Italian Kings asked, "WITCH way did they go?" Resources...for your own epiphanies... Among my top 2025 epiphanies "as" saved my "ass" ... SELF-CARE One day early in the year, as I was reading a New Testament passage about loving our neighbors, the word "as" caught my attention - as I realized it was making a conditional statement ... HOW I was loving myself had a direct impact on HOW I was loving you and everyone else. As a result of this insight, I began paying more attention to how I was caring for myself, starting with paying more attention to my thoughts and words, especially negative self-talk. Another self-care practice that is still developing is NOT trying to fit too much into my day. This over-scheduling inevitably leads to anxiety . It also caused me to get anxious as a result of fear of not meeting "self-imposed" deadlines. This first section of this post is an example of what can happen when I trust my Higher Power and let things naturally emerge...It wasn't part of earlier drafts. "Go ask Alice..." Let's see what she has to show us: Alice in Wonderland (1951) “I’m Late!” BLACK AND WHITE EDITION (00:42) "Let my people go" (and merge into traffic)... Woke up thinking about this practice in the context of this post. It's been part of my toolkit for some time - both on the roads and the supermarket checkout lines. People who always let others merge in traffic usually display these 8 remarkable traits, says psychology - Lachlan Brown Learning a new form of meditation that's helping me deal with common distractions in prayer...and more...For this gem, I'd like to thank Garden City's Cathedral of the Incarnation's Center for Spiritual Imagination (CSI) and their "Exploring the Incarnation Method of Prayer" course [see links at end under "Resources"]. For almost 50 years I've had a twice-daily centering prayer practice . Like many practices over time, they can lose something. What I noticed right away about the CSI practice is that it begins by inviting us to recognize what's going on in our thoughts and bodies AND present these as legitimate parts of our prayer. So, instead of trying to block them, we welcome them and talk about them with the One we are sitting with. In a few minutes, we then pray for others. As a result, intercession has become a regular part of my prayer life ...AND, one that continues throughout the day after I leave the cushion. The CSI practice concludes with a period of REST...RECEPTIVITY...and SILENCE. Seeing my "old" centering prayer practice in a "new" light. As a result of these reflections, I was led to revisit centering prayer through the eyes of my original teachers: Fr. Thomas Keating, Fr. Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault . She writes, "In one of the very earliest training workshops led by Keating himself, a nun tried out her first twenty-minute taste of Centering Prayer and then lamented, “Oh, Father Thomas, I’m such a failure at this prayer. In twenty minutes I’ve had ten thousand thoughts!”  “How lovely,” responded Keating, without missing a beat. “Ten thousand opportunities to return to God.”  Centering Prayer - The Center for Action and Contemplation Follow the Star: "Sometimes we get shown the light in the strangest of places if we look at it right" This heading is a NEW find for this season's post...as is "LaBefana" as the end... --from " Scarlett Begonias" - The Grateful Dead Grateful Dead's 'Scarlet Begonias' by the Barton Hills Choir and DeadEye #DeadCoversProject2017 Wise ones still follow a STAR... Here's the single version...for "beginners"...there are MUCH LONGER versions. FYI - I like this uploader's sci fi take... Grateful Dead - Dark Star (Single Version) (02:39) Grateful Dead epiphanies (aka, "There's a Grateful Dead song...tale... for every occasion"***) [This and subsequent citations are from the link that follows the last citation.] Epiphany is both individual and universal, an insight in which we intuit answers to the mysteries of consciousness and existence and glimpse the profound connections between the self and the world. ...the Grateful Dead's project is one of the minor utopias that held sway in America and Europe during that deeply destructive epoch, ones that loom large in retrospect precisely for the hope they represented against the much larger and deeply destructive utopian—or dystopian—movements that dominated that time. Phil Lesh used those terms when he reflected, “The onrushing sixties were to bring a completely different paradigm, when we would begin to involve ourselves in working toward the realization of what some would deride as a Utopian dream: a nation and a culture built on love, respect, and the quest for spiritual values.” One of the band's earliest literary influences, James Joyce , expanded the idea of epiphany from its strictly religious context to the secular; no wonder that concept would strike a critic as a fitting way to describe the power and impact of a Dead concert, of its consummate co-creation of a music-in-the-moment that dissolved the boundary around the stage in what Garcia memorably called “seat of-the-pants shamanism.” As early as 1966, however, both the Dead and their fans had their own description for that vision quest, one that connected to that older spiritual definition: “Every place we play is church.” Phil Lesh called the Dead phenomenon “slippery” in a discussion with one writer. “There's nothing you can get a handle on . . . it's like looking at a mirrored ball: There's nothing to grasp, because all you're seeing is what's reflected. All you're seeing is yourself.” Barlow put it more poetically in his lyrics to “Let It Grow”: “What shall we say, shall we call it by a name / As well to count the angels dancing on a pin.” In an interview with Garcia , Lesh commented, “If we could explain it to ourselves, we would. But then, we'd probably lose it.” Garcia agreed: “Yeah, right! It's always skittering out of our grasp.” Yet they welcomed that elusiveness; that was what their music sought. “That's why we play,” Bob Weir explained to a reporter in 1980. “If there's anything about us, if there's any point we'd like to make, it's so ethereal, so abstract, that we have to turn to music to articulate it.” It was a tantalizing statement of what the band's project really was: to reveal what was hidden, to do what Aldous Huxley had suggested of psychedelics when he quoted William Blake's line from The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell : “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” For the Dead and their listeners, that went to the heart of what the shared ritual of music-making could be: nothing less than a tool for expanding consciousness, for emotional catharsis and psychological gestalt, and most of all, renewal-to touch the infinite. And it expressed a fundamentally artistic imperative, a restatement of the ancient aesthetic charge that all artists embrace, to “make it new.” Together, all of these insights add up to indeed form mammoth epiphanies. Yet at their core, what made up those epiphanies were moments, scattered and fragmentary and precious. Shadow Boxing The Apocalypse Chasing Epiphany, Improvising Revelation: An Alternate History of the Grateful Dead - Dead.net ***A frequent quote - this wisdom was first uttered by my former surfer friend and VW repair mentor Steve Bermont . Epifunny :))))) This next one's for my card-playing friends from South Ozone Park...Great seeing youze guys the other day at the diner... Baby, I've got a crèche on you... Epiphany 2023: Journeys Within & Without... Here are two SNL skits that are included in the above post link. Three wise guys - DeNiro Goodman Stallone (05:10) Because they're in the wrong part of town...They get pulled over...by a torch-wielding Roman officer...Some things never change...BUT, they should! Three Wise Men - SNL (04:40) Epiphany 2023: Journeys Within & Without... The Three Italian Kings asked, "WITCH way did they go?" (NIV...New York Italian Version) Three wise guys from the East Side, lower East Side to be precise, crossed the sands of Old Nevada and arrived in the city looking for a place to crash…but no dice…not even when they told the bouncer at the door, “Gabe sent me…” Disappointed (and pissed off) they packed up their Camels (the only kind real men smoke) and headed for the poor side of town - the other side of the tracks - camel tracks…singing as they arrived, “just got into Nazareth…” (Another NIV) Napoletan Italian Version (original "sauce" unknown) Look who's located there... The Weight - McCall Brothers Band (08:10) [from their description] A McCall Brothers Band tribute to (The Band) and their song (The Weight). The song is described as a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters making it an essential part of the American songbook. Some closing thoughts offered as a shout out to music and horror maven Keith Crocker (1) as well as the crew at Witches Brew Coffee House in West Hempstead, NY. (1) this is just one of several posts about Keith's presentations on topics like music and horror. For more fun, get on his mailing list: faustusmd@verizon.net   La Befana: The Italian Christmas Witch (03:44) [from next link] In the Italian cultural calendar , the period between December 24th and January 6th represents a sacred suspension of time— a "liminal" space where the sacred and the profane intertwine. While much of the Western world concludes its holiday festivities on New Year’s Day, Italy holds its breath for one final, spectacular crescendo: l'Epifania . As the popular Italian proverb dictates, l’Epifania tutte le feste porta via  (the Epiphany carries away all the holidays). Far from being a mere postscript to Christmas, January 6th is a national holiday  and a cornerstone of Italian identity, blending rigorous Catholic liturgy with ancestral pagan rites  that date back to Roman times. For the discerning traveler, understanding the traditions of the Epiphany  is the key to unlocking the true soul of an Italian winter . Epiphany in Italy: traditions, folklore, and the legend of La Befana - Guide to Italy Seeing "The Trinity" in the title of this cover of Donovan's classic 1966 song echoes our Three Kings themes... Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Season Of The Witch (07:44) Resources...for manifesting our own epiphanies... Prophet...or...loss... --Meditative & musical reflections to help us avoid getting mauled in a shopping mall...But there’s more…Wise folks recommend periodically taking stock of where we are on this adventure called life. Practices for Contemplative Living: Lectio Divina/Visio Divina...Praying with art & other images and text... --My expectation is that what follows will help us appreciate yet another way to experience the reality that "G-d as we understand G-d" (AA's Step 3) is all around us. This broader awareness can be helped as we learn new ways to see... #music #humor #Epiphany #CenteringPrayer #ThomasKeating #RichardRohr #CynthiaBourgeault #ThreeKings #GratefulDead #SteveBermont #WiseMen #WiseGuys #VWBus #SNL #ChurchOfTheIntercessor #MalverneNY #WitchesBrewCoffeeHouse #WestHempsteadNY #LaBefana #witch #Italy #JulieDriscoll #BrianAuger #TheTrinity #KeithCrocker #Nazareth #CenterForActionAndContemplation #CenterForSpiritualImagination #CathedralOfTheIncarnation #GardenCityNY #CenteringPrayer #meditation #prophet #loss #LectioDivina #VisioDivina

ROAD MAP Questions of a Thousand Years... But First, Here's a Musical Shortcut Thru This Post PART 1: REFLECTIONS ON LONGING...WAITING... "A picture's worth a thousand words" Dancing is Embodying... "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion." PART 2: "G-D" IS ALREADY..."HERE"..."THERE" & "EVERYWHERE"... Waiting for "G-d"...as we understand "G-d" (AA)... Francis of Assisi saw God everywhere Is there any place we can go where G-d isn't? Mountaintop experiences... Street level (ordinary time) experiences... "G-d loves things by becoming them." PART 3: FOR THOSE STILL UNSURE..."Go to the limits of your longing..." BLIND FAITH - "Can't find my way home" U2 - "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" YUSUF / CAT STEVENS - "On the road to find out" Questions of a Thousand Years... Can we see G-d before our spirits leave our bodies? If so... ...will this be with our eyes and/or with our spirits? The seeds for this post were sown during our December Men2Men circle in Brentwood, when Don , our presenter, offered reflections on "longing" - a predominant Advent theme. "Waiting" is another. Well, some of these seeds fell on "good ground"... ...BUT, like things in a garden, they had to develop and that took time. I've been in Earth's garden now for 78 years and, as a result of life experiences, the intentions I've made and the people I've chosen to spend time with, I am seeing and understanding things in new and evolving ways. This is both exciting and challenging...as light and dark do their work...in helping my transformation... A key decision has been my intention to see my relationship with my Higher Power as just that: a RELATIONSHIP . It's part of an overall OVERHAUL of HOW I'm choosing to live...FIRST, with myself...and then, with everyone else. One of the fruits of this decision is a RENEWAL of the love relationship between Eileen and I...Now in it's 47th year . Another is my awareness that I don't have to wait until my spirit leaves my body to "see" G-d...I can see G-d NOW...This is in spite of passages like the following that claim we CAN'T see the face of G-d and live: "The LORD replied, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.' " Exodus 30:19-20 But First, Here's a Musical Shortcut Thru This Post If you're feeling like the refrain in this first song...continue to the second... The Kinks "Tired Of Waiting For You" (Live Video 1965) (02:34) Amy Grant - Everywhere I Go (Live Music Video) (04:26) PART 1: REFLECTIONS ON LONGING...WAITING...SEEING G-D Here's the poem Don shared with us: A few days later, during the weekly Monday night meditation and contemplative prayer online session offered by the Cathedral of the Incarnation's Center for Spiritual Imagination in Garden City, NY (click link for info).... ...a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke "Go to the Limits of Your Longing" was offered. Click the next link to hear the poem read... Go to the Limits of Your Longing Written by Rainer Maria Rilke                Translated and read by Joanna Macy God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand. --Book of Hours, I 59 SOURCE: On Being Project "A picture's worth a thousand words" " God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night." "G-d knits us together in our mother's womb" Psalm 139 "Embody me." Embodying God: What It Truly Means Embodying God means living as the living expression of divine presence on Earth. It involves allowing God's presence to fill every cell, every breath, every choice until there is no longer a gap between who you believe yourself to be and Who I Am within you. This process is not about striving for perfection but about surrendering to the divine and allowing grace, joy, and truth to flow through you. It is a journey of wholeness where spirit and flesh no longer oppose one another but dance as one divine rhythm. ( SOURCE ) "Nearby is the country they call life." Canned Heat - Going Up The Country 1970 (02:44) While the song referenced in Don's handout - "There is a Longing" - isn't online, here's another by the Monks that expresses "longing" : We Desire You - The Monks of Weston Priory (03:14) Dancing is Embodying... Many years ago, Eileen and I and friends would drive up to Weston, VT to spend time celebrating with the Monks . On warm days, they would open the barn doors and dance in the spirit as they sang. A fine example of embodiment . Here's a nearby place where we practice the Gentry's "Keep on Dancing "...At the Baha'i Cultural Center in Valley Stream NY. Dances of Universal Peace "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion." The words from Rumi lead us here... The quoted title of this section are the wise words of my friend Steve - as we surfed and listened to the Dead in many wonder-filled places and states of mind.... I picked this particular video because the thumbnail image featured Bob Weir's countenance. He left these worldly plains on Jan.10 to join Jerry, Pigpen and Phil in the "house" band in the sky. Here they are together at NYC's Radio City Music Hall . Grateful Dead - Franklin's Tower | Live at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY (1980) (09:03) PART 2: "G-D" IS ALREADY..."HERE"..."THERE" & "EVERYWHERE"... Waiting for "G-d"...as we understand "G-d" (AA)... For the thoughts and experiences that follow, my hope is that we'll realize that "G-d" (as we understand "G-d" [AA]) is not far away but... rather as... ..."We open our awareness to God  whom we know by faith is within us, closer   than   breathing , closer  than thinking, closer  than choosing – closer than consciousness itself."  ( SOURCE )   Francis of Assisi saw God everywhere Francis was praying alone …, uttering a mantra in the form of a question: “Who are You, O God? And who am I?” [1] The more Francis wandered into the fields of nature, the more he wandered into the fields of his own heart. The outer world invited him to enter his inner world. There he encountered the mystery of God who was at once, Most High, and yet infinitely near; more intimate than his own self....The more he found God within himself, the more he saw God outside himself where every detail of nature spoke to him of God...It was love that moved Francis into other worlds: the world of the leper, the world of the poor, the world of earthworms and wolves, into the world of everything, because only in the world is God born through love. However, one must be able to see and listen to the sounds of divine love crying out in the birth pangs of the new creation. Francis set his heart on God’s passionate love, his mind on knowing this love and his eyes on seeing this love.   [full article at next link] Love in the Created World - Center for Action and Contemplation Is there any place we can go where G-d isn't? Psalm 139 The Message Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?     to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there!     If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings     to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—     you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!     At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;     night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you. Mountaintop experiences... If you're like me and grew up with Hollywood's portrayals of Moses  on the mountain, we were shown that only a select few ever had this experience of closeness. Worse, parts of scripture paint a fearful image of what can happen if we desire face-to-face intimacy: 20  But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” --Exodus 33:20 New Living Translation ( SOURCE ) Street level (ordinary time) experiences...   All her life, Mirabai Starr  wanted to be one of the “God-intoxicated ones”  as she calls them—the kind of spiritual person who exudes stillness and embodies equanimity. The type of person who might chant all night in a temple or know the Beatitudes by heart. And then, she didn’t want that. Instead, she wanted to walk the path of what she calls the ordinary mystic—someone who’s able to be present with what is, whatever that may be. Starr wants that for all of us, too. “I want you to be exactly who you are: a true human person doing their best to show up for this fleeting life with a measure of grace, with kindness and a sense of humor, with curiosity and a willingness to not have all the answers, with reverence for life,” she writes in her new book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground . “Say yes to what is, even when it is uncomfortable or embarrassing or heartbreaking. Hurl your handful of yes into the treetops and then lift your face as the rain of yes drops its grace all over you, all around you, and settles deep inside you.” The Sunday Paper   caught up with Starr after her book reading in Boulder, Colorado, this week to ask her how we might get better at saying yes to what is, find more love and grace in the everyday, and walk the path of the ordinary mystic. ( SOURCE ) "G-d loves things by becoming them." Speaking about Bono's affection for Richard , Oprah says: Father Richard Rohr: "God Loves Things By Becoming Them" | SuperSoul Sunday | Oprah Winfrey Network (01:42) [from the video's description] In his new book, "The Universal Christ", Father Richard Rohr writes: "God loves things by becoming them." Here, Father Rohr shares with Oprah why "Christ" is another name for everything and asks us to discover God's presence in everything and everyone around us. PART 3: FOR THOSE STILL UNSURE... "Go to the limits of your longing..." BLIND FAITH - "Can't find my way home" Blind Faith - Can't Find My Way Home - London Hyde Park 1969. (06:08) U2 - "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" "I have climbed highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you I have run, I have crawled I have scaled these city walls These city walls Only to be with you..." U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Official Music Video) [from the article that follows] “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” tackles, in touching fashion, the struggle to maintain faith, when the proof of divinity can’t ever be pinned down by us mere mortals. In every verse, the narrator describes his efforts, taking him through all manner of obstacles. And every time that refrain ( But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for ) returns, a fresh pang of anguish hits once again. Even when he does make some progress, it’s contradicted by another feeling. The healing  of honey lips and fingertips  only serve to foster more longing within him: It burned like fire / The burning desire . His search engenders loneliness, when he imagines himself the only one left on the outside of heavenly love: It was warm in the night / I was cold as a stone . For all these bumps in the road, he holds fast to his beliefs, as the final verse makes clear. He anticipates a paradise where all the colours bleed into one . Perhaps it’s telling that “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” went to No. 1 in just one other country besides the band’s native Ireland: the U.S. U2 officially earned their American roots-music stripes with this soul-stirrer of a track. The Meaning Behind “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2 and How It Reflected the Band’s New Focus - American Songwriter YUSUF / CAT STEVENS - "On the road to find out" Yusuf / Cat Stevens – On The Road To Find Out (04:08) #music #humor #Men2Men #Brentwood #Don #waiting #longing #Advent #Kinks #AmyGrant #MonksOfWestonPriory #WestonVT #CathedralOfTheIncarnation #GardenCityNY #CenterForSpiritualImagination #poems #RainerMariaRilke #JoannaMacy #OnBeingProject #enbodying #CannedHeat #dancing #Eileen #Gentrys #DancesOfUniversalPeace #BahaiCulturalCenter #ValleyStreamNY #GratefulDead #Rumi #dancing #ThomasKeating #BillW #AA #FrancisOfAssisi #Psalm139 #MirabaiStarr #RichardRohr #Bono #Oprah #BlindFaith #U2 #YusufCatStevens #InayatKhan #RamDass

The journey is an archetypal symbol...Since the beginning of time, some people have felt the inner call to pick up their tent poles and look for SOMETHING ELSE... In 1973, after several summers of traveling with friends and family to California following waves and the Grateful Dead, I packed up my 1965 VW Bus and moved to California...but this is not about that journey... For a chapter in THAT journey, take a side trip here... At some point in our travels...hopefully, we will remain open when a "STAR" invites us to the INNER JOURNEY...Where we'll discover the gifts...the treasures...the king...the kingdom...is WITHIN... NIV: Newly Imagined Version or NRSV: Nicely Revised SNL Version They came from the East…East New York…East L A… Three Wise Men - SNL (2003) (04:40) On the way to Bethlehem, a racist cop (Jimmy Fallon) on camelback pulls over the Three Wise Men (Al Sharpton, Tracy Morgan, Kenan Thompson) for suspicious activities in the desert. [Season 29, 2003] They came from the East…East Coast… Three Wise Guys - SNL (2013) (05:10) Three kings played by Sylvester Stallone, John Goodman and Robert De Niro gossip about baby Jesus while riding their camels to Bethlehem. So much for “Hymns”…Let’s give equal time to “Hers”… See more wise women below under "STORIES"... So much for three CAMELS… So much for three WHITE men... So much for three kings or magi... Let's imagine they were three musicians looking for a new gig... FOOD FOR OUR JOURNEY... Ten Cuidado (Be Careful): Before biting in, note that this sweet contains a plastic figurine of a baby inside. "Sí! , somos tres reyes..." (Por Pedro...) NYC: Rosca de Reyes (Mexican Three Kings Bread) @ Todo Rico Bakery in Jackson Heights Queens (02:50) Be sure to read the description Rosca de Reyes: The special Mexican sweet bread celebrating Three Kings Day (03:05) "Oui! ...Nous sommes trois rois..." (Pour Dr. Reagan...) Traditional French King's Cake Recipe (Galette des Rois) || William's Kitchen (10:36) SONGS FOR OUR JOURNEY... Three Wise Men - Jim Nabors (02:48) Three Wise Men (01:42) We Three Camels Christmas 2015 (02:30) --as told by the camels (hand puppets) We Three Kings - Hugh Jackman, David Hobson and Peter Cousen (04:27) We Three Kings - Clamavi De Profundis (05:19) Mediaeval Baebes - 'We Three Kings' (04:19) Mariah Carey - The Star (Official Video) (04:01) Live and animated STORIES FOR OUR JOURNEY... Lego Nativity - The Wise Men (02:45) The Three Wise Men and Their Epic Road Trip Three Wise Women – A story for Epiphany (07:28) --the following images are from this charming tale For FURTHUR Journeying... Going Furthur Documentary Official Trailer (02:40) Furthur Bus - Wikipedia The Who - Magic Bus - Live At Leeds HQ (07:33) Follow YOUR Star...Get on YOUR Bus... The Other One - Grateful Dead Fillmore East March 1971 (18:08) Grateful Dead - Scarlet Begonias (Winterland 10/19/74) (Official Live Video) (12:57) The Journey is to find the king...the kingdom...WITHIN... In the original story, the wise men traveled from the East westward...In the 60's, people seeking the "SOMETHING ELSE" I mentioned at the beginning of this tale...they/WE traveled a reverse route...from the West to the East... Within You Without You - George Harrison (05:04) The Beatles' Magical Orchestra: "Within You Without You" (07:30) On Long Island Sit back and watch The Magical Orchestra recreate George Harrison's "Within You Without You." First up, maestro David Amram introduces the classical instruments of India used in the song. This is actually an edit of two incomplete videos: the opening of the song from The Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts (2005) and the remainder of the song from The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center (2006). It was a great honor working with two groups of extraordinary musicians. Within You Without You - George Harrison covered by The Magical Orchestra (04:48) --the images are an amazing visual masterpiece to accompany George and the rest of us on our journeys through life... "Within You Without You" We were talking about the space between us all And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion Never glimpse the truth, then it's far too late, when they pass away We were talking about the love we all could share When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew Try to realize it's all within yourself No one else can make you change And to see you're really only very small And life flows on within you and without you We were talking about the love that's gone so cold And the people who gain the world and lose their soul They don't know, they can't see, are you one of them? When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find Peace of mind is waiting there And the time will come when you see we're all one And life flows on within you and without you "We are all potential Messiahs sent from the One…but we need to spend time in quiet reflection to hear the individual messages with which we are entrusted… From an unpaid acting gig at Church of the Intercessor in Malverne, NY - I'm the guy on the left...Like a lot lately...I came upon a midnight clear...Oops...I was led to this pic while looking for something else... Journeys Ended, Journeys Begun - The Monks of Weston Priory (04:13) Together with my mate and with other friends, we had the pleasure to visit the brothers at their hillside retreat in the rolling green hills of Weston Vermont. On warm summer days, they'd slide open the barn doors of the worship space and dance in the spirit. #music #humor #SNL #SaturdayNightLive #ThreeKingsDay #JimNabors #LEGOS #TheWHO #GratefulDead #FurthurBus # MediaevalBaebes # ClamaviDeProfundis #Beatles #Jesus #MonksOfWestonPriory

At the conclusion of last Monday's Lectio Divina (1) gathering offered by the Center for Spiritual Imagination , one of my fellow participants mentioned that the lectionary selection we read caused him to feel happiness … Immediately, a popular song came to mind and I dropped a few words in our chat: “Happiness runs in a circular motion” (1) slow, mindful reading with repetition. For more, see post link under "Resources" heading. Opening Act Which comes first: happiness or gratitude? Benefits of Gratitude All Together Now...Gratitude for our friends With a Little Help from our Friends Gratitude Meditation Grateful I'm not DEAD... “From the lips of infants and children you have ordained praise” - Psalm 8:2 The Gospel of John, Paul, George & Ringo says it like this Resources Opening Act Here’s “Saint” Donovan leading us in this round: Feel free to join in... Donovan in Concert - Happiness Runs (05:57) Which leads us to ponder the age-old question… Which comes first: happiness or gratitude? [Opening remarks...Click next link for complete talk] There is something you know about me, something very personal, and there is something I know about every one of you and that's very central to your concerns. There is something that we know about everyone we meet anywhere in the world, on the street, that is the very mainspring of whatever they do and whatever they put up with. And that is that all of us want to be happy. In this, we are all together. How we imagine our happiness, that differs from one another, but it's already a lot that we have all in common, that we want to be happy. Now my topic is gratefulness. What is the connection between happiness and gratefulness? Many people would say, well, that's very easy. When you are happy, you are grateful. But think again. Is it really the happy people that are grateful? We all know quite a number of people who have everything that it would take to be happy, and they are not happy, because they want something else or they want more of the same. And we all know people who have lots of misfortune, misfortune that we ourselves would not want to have, and they are deeply happy. They radiate happiness. You are surprised. Why? Because they are grateful. So it is not happiness that makes us grateful. It's gratefulness that makes us happy. If you think it's happiness that makes you grateful, think again. It's gratefulness that makes you happy. Want to be happy? Be grateful - David Steindl-Rast TED (14:16) Gratitude - David Steindl-Rast (05:21) Benefits of Gratitude [Click next link for complete article]. Understanding Gratitude When we talk about gratitude, it's like holding up a mirror to the good in our lives. Studies show that individuals who consciously cultivate gratitude tend to have a more positive outlook on life. This isn’t some magic cure, but rather a mindset shift. By actively practicing gratitude, one may very well transform their state of mind. "Gratitude turns what we have into enough." — Aesop The Impact of Gratitude on Happiness Gratitude and happiness, intertwined like threads in a tapestry, often influence each other. When you practice gratitude, it often leads to a mental state where happiness can bloom. Here are some key ways gratitude fosters happiness: Improved Physical Health : Feeling thankful reduces stress and helps individuals experience fewer ailments, fostering a healthier body and, consequently, a happier one. Better Relationships : Expressing gratitude cultivates meaningful connections, enhancing one's social and emotional support network. Enhanced Resilience : Grateful people are more adaptable when facing challenges, which contributes to longer-lasting happiness. The Connection Between Gratitude and Happiness - Ravi Patel All Together Now...Gratitude for our friends Seeing the words "All Together Now" on the screen in front of David Steindl-Rast , called for this tune: The Beatles - All Together Now (Official Video) (02:20) With a Little Help from our Friends Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (Live) (08:47) Gratitude Meditation 10 Min Gratitude Meditation | Cultivate Profound Gratitude & Peace To Transform Your Reality (10:47) Grateful I'm not DEAD... 10 Grateful Dead Quotes to Inspire You to Be Thankful for What You Have - The Capitol Theatre Check out this Lutheran pastor's take... “From the lips of infants and children you have ordained praise” - Psalm 8:2 Here's a bunch of Austin, Texas kids that are DEADicated to spreading the joy... 'Attics Of My Life' by the Barton Hills Choir (04:25) Attics of My Life (Grateful Dead) In the attics of my life Full of cloudy dreams unreal Full of tastes no tongue can know And lights no eye can see When there was no ear to hear You sang to me I have spent my life Seeking all that's still unsung Bent my ear to hear the tune And closed my eyes to see When there were no strings to play You played to me In the book of love's own dream Where all the print is blood Where all the pages are my days And all my lights grow old When I had no wings to fly You flew to me You flew to me In the secret space of dreams Where I dreaming lay amazed When the secrets all are told And the petals all unfold When there was no dream of mine You dreamed of me Songwriters: Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia. For non-commercial use only. The Gospel of John, Paul, George & Ringo says it like this: “All you need is love…Love is all you need…” Paul McCartney, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton & Rod Stewart - All You Need Is Love (LIVE) HD (04:09) Resources As we were wrapping up, our facilitator Kris mentioned other forms of sacred reading such as Visio Divina and Musica Divina that will be part of our third get together. Listening three times… --->>> If you sign up for this third offering, you'll be able to access the first two. Registration link can be found in this next link. Practices for Contemplative Living: Lectio Divina/Visio Divina...Praying with art & other images and text... #music #humor #CenterForSpiritualImagination #LectioDivina #Donovan #happiness #gratitude #DavidSteindlRast #Aesop #meditation #Beatles #gospel #friends #JoeCocker #GratefulDead #VisioDivina #MusicaDivina