Wednesday, February 13, 2019

44 The Mystery Revealed


Interlude


     Phil, the author. shortly after returning from a wedding, developed chest congestion. The x-ray indicated the possibility of cancer of the lung and he was referred for a PET scan which turned out to be negative. However, the original pneumonia smoldered, and he has just recently begun to venture out of the house. For a while the writing appeared hopeless. For over two years the author has attempted to examine the phenomenon  of consciousness for the purpose of getting humans to see their part in global warming and subsequent catastrophe. We are at an impasse. But we may yet find a natural phenomenon right before our eyes.

Episode 44: The Mystery Revealed

           In the last episode Leda, the dragonfly, rolled a bomb into the midst of the Group. Stark terror gripped the Circle. Leda announced that 76% of the world’s insects have vanished, her own family included.
         Hummy realized that something had to be done to settle the group so that it could at least come to grips with Leda’s shocking statement. His tiny little wings were beating up a frenzy. His mind was wandering aimlessly back-and-forth causing some dizziness in the tiny bird. The only thing that Hummy could  instinctively to do was to herd the group of 25 animals into a nearly perfect circle on the top of the great slab near the waterfall.       
          There was the  rich green of the mountains, the sprinkling of red hibiscus in the valleys below, the chatter of birds, and music coming from the rebuilding of homes in Roseau in the valley below.
          He and several others in the group  realized there was a force directing the group into a circle and in this particular case, a double circle.
        But as the double circle formed there was yet another force coming from within each animal. The force was simply ‘awe’ and probably not  describable beyond that. Within each living organism there is back door. Such a door must have prevailed following previous extinctions. However, the back door is not a true door but a force like gravity or the wind. It is not a thing to tag but a force to be reckoned with.
        Jake, the basset hound, barked out, “Aren’t we the lucky 25? We were safe in the cave and now we’re safely watching humans
rebuilding Dominica.”
       Though trying not to be a spoilsport, Mary the white pelican facilitator said, “We came here to save the humans from planetary destruction and now we’re watching them save themselves. I think we have missed something.”
        Hooie, the barn owl, hooted, “ The people of Puerto Rico are still wallowing in self-pity and the people of this small island have done a miraculous thing. What’s the difference?”
        Mum, the nanny goat, struggled to find  the  right name but faltered.
  “I see a mystery. “
        Mira the sloth, crooned slowly but deliberately, “ Just slow down and see what is happening to each home as it is being rebuilt. There is a rhythm and a flow, the people working on each home in unison. It is true teamwork.”
        Then BillyG bleated, “The word could be configuration. Imagine a school of minnows trying to cross the Pacific Ocean; the first, a family of seven or eight. The second school is a tremendous mass of millions of minnows and the third is a tight ball changing  shape as it goes and  appearing as something different that it is. To some it is just another predator. To others the mass appears to be a whale.
Which of the three configurations has the most likely chance of  survivorship?”
           

Epilogue


          Have we pickled all the available cucumbers? Certainly, we have some 43 episodes devoted to the issue of consciousness. Was the issue never consciousness to begin with? Should we move on into the unconscious? And if so, do we dare to plumb the mind of G-d?  For the moment, Phil, the author will study the unconscious through the medium of meditation. Hopefully G-d will poke through the cloud of the unknown.


Suggested viewing: Earth I and II David Attenborough

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

43 The Bomb

      Dominica is brilliant today. In the bright sun the leaves are as green as they have ever been. Spanning across the mountains flowers are blooming again and people are singing. 

       Mary, the white pelican, felt an inexpressible gratitude that all the animals returned. 
       Hooie, the barn owl, hooted, “Hummy and Mum brought up this inner-child idea. What’s that all about? how does that relate to what we are trying to do? I thought we were helping the humans save the planet.”
       Free, the butterfly, wildly fluttering about, “I think they’re onto something. They may be acting without judgment, but with a clear vision about human children in their history. In the Children’s Crusade of 1212 the children were simply used and abused in their route to the holy land. They had no information about what they were up against and were either slaughtered or sold in the slavery. Now the children are chock-full of information, but nothing is asked of them.  Many of them choke up, drug up, dumb down or commit suicide.”
       Joe, the pig, snorted, “I think I can see what Free envisions. By the time human children are 12 years old they are ready for work and eager as well. But the child labor laws have gradually forced them out of the big picture. They feel trapped in the school environment and they rebel in a variety of self-destructive ways.
        Fregata, the frigate bird,   swoops in with,  “I can see that some children just need to work rather than study. It’s natural for them. Many  rebel in school.”
       Mira, the sloth, very slowly chimed in, “ I wonder if there is a healthy child-self? We animals are jerked up and tossed out of the nest. Some humans call it tough-love”
       Mary, the facilitator, sensing a log jam, called out to all, “Commune in the pair-bond  mode and hopefully reach a consensus.” 
        The group dutifully settled in to their one-on-one pair-bond mode and were soon very animated with the noise of their chatter.
        Mary thought; if they can experience each other(the pair) deeply then we may have a way to leverage the adult human mind.By leveraging the adult human through human children, we have gained a pathway. That much I intuit but Lord only knows how. 
        Suddenly,  Leda the dragonfly, dropped a ticking bomb into their midst, “ I am having a virtual cow over so much attention to the human plight. It is now widely accepted that over 70% of flying insects have disappeared from the planet. But this is hidden from view while humans rage over politics. I have fashioned a makeshift vest of tinfoil around my body, but I don’t feel safe. I have not been able to locate any of my family.”



Monday, November 26, 2018

42 Finding The Child-Self

        As a double circle re-grouped, they did not turn their attention to Mary, the facilitator, but to each other in their pair-bond. Mary thought, what’s natural may be a part of the fabric of truth that was weaving its way into their midst. Don’t force anything and let it unfold. She was so excited that her pouch rattled uncontrollably.
BillyG, the billy goat, could not help but say “ Mary, got a catfish tangled in your pouch?”
        Mary’s pouch turned from gray to an embarrassing pink, but was quick to reply, “No I just got pleasantly caught off guard. I didn’t have to make any presumptuous opening speech. All of you resumed your pair-bonds as natural as biscuits and gravy. It’s a testament to Mom Nature’s Hand in our group’s design.”
        Hummy focused on Mary’s pink pouch and sensed she was hiding something and tweeted, “ Mary, you have told us that it is good to share our thoughts and feelings. So, what’s up?”
        In a pelican whisper Mary said, “ I am afraid that the devastation of Dominica tells us that the effects of global warming are already upon us. These storms are becoming fiercer, fires are raging in California, and blame abounds.”
        Ducky quacked, “ But the people in Dominica are rebuilding with :-) faces and that’s a good thing.”
        Bosco, the border collie, barked out, “ Good thought Ducky but the Dominican people are a tiny splash in the puddle of Life. Who will hear us and who will hear them?”
        Hooie, the barn owl, hooted, “I think it very spooky that we all came to resume the double circle”
        Coqui, the tree frog, sang out ” “We switched to the single circle and lost focus”.
        “Hmm, I have a thought about that until you mentioned it,” chirped Bertie, the peregrine falcon.
        “The double circle got too intense for me”, Andi, the osprey chimed in.
         Mira, the sloth, slowly crooned, “The double circle as hot and fast and pretty nearly overwhelming to me. I should’ve raised concern earlier, but I don’t know that much about circles, so I just let you all carry-on.”
        Cackle, the grackle, spoke with great authority, “ the Double Circle Group is like a living organism; So, let it breathe.  When I meditate, I must breathe in an out and gradually shed the ego crust and find my inner self.” 
        Buzzing about trying to imitate the sign of Infinity, Hummy recalled from Harry Crews;
        “One of my favorite places to be was in the corner of the room where the ladies were quilting. God, I loved the click of needles on thimbles, a sound that will always make me think of stories. When I was a boy, stories were conversation and conversation was stories. For me it was a time of magic.”
                                                                                            Harry Crews
        Mum bleated, “ I know that I must return to the consciousness of my childhood. We also know that the ladies are quilting the fabric with stories that stand the test of time. My inner child yearns to break free of the battlefield of ego against ego into the Wego of the future.”

Suggested reading:   HOMECOMING: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child  by John Bradshaw

       

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

41 The Truth in Woven Threads

        At first, Mary, the white pelican, believed that the group was finished with their work. How could they have finished, if she kept running things over and over again in her mind? Then she felt a thump her heart and that was even more scary. She was flying north away from Dominica but her left-wing kept dropping and pulling her into a circle.
        Meanwhile Phil’s writing group told him on Tuesday that they believed that the animals should resume the story. They also said, in a polite way, that the animals were more interesting than Phil’s philosophical stuff.
        This morning Phil had a brief but significant conversation with Buddy, the agouti, who is paired with Hummy in the story. Coincidences were piling up.
        Two weeks ago Phil began 11th Step meditation. He had no idea what led him to this particular sequence. When he finished, his prodigal foster son called asking to return to the AA group. The threads kept on weaving. 
        Adding to the fabric, an intuition pumped into Phil’s heart, completely bypassing his aging brain. The story that the animals were telling need not have an ending, but was a never-ending story. Some of the animals may have wandered off, hormonally driven, mated and returned as sons and daughters, and even grand-dragonflies.
        Meanwhile, Mary felt the wind blowing her towards Dominica. Was it part of the fabric that was leading toward a restoration of the double circle animal group? The threads were mysteriously being woven. When she first approached the northern tip of Dominica, she realized how much of the vegetation was restored and in full bloom following the ravages of Hurricane Maria. The various shades of green were both striking and brilliant . Many of the trees were regaining their footing. Mom Nature was at work.
        Mary, the white Pelican, hoped to get the animals to renew the double circle group. As she swooped down for a closer look, she saw a nearby table rock under the shade of a surviving mango tree and felt tears of joy  seeing several of her animal group gathered below. The connecting treads were weaving a fabric. 
        Mary dropped onto the table rock amongst the group as all the others had mysteriously returned. How could they know? Does Mom Nature have a spooky kind of power? All the animals gathered in their original circles. What is going on? 
        As she took her place in the inner circle, Mary, without knowing within her brain,  her heart was rejoined with the rhythmic beating in sync with the 24 other hearts in the circles. She needed no protection from the crust of ego here. Her heart was open to all in the circles. 
 suggested listening: The second movement of the 9th Symphony by Philip Glass