noche de las brujas

all hallows eve or hallowe'en has always been a national holiday at our house, but is pre-empted this year by election activities. the "night of the witches" always had special meaning with our kids at home because it involved being someone different for one night. one special memory for me was the year i dressed up as a werewolf to hand out candy. with my dark beard (then) and a particularly scary wolf mask, a trench coat, and a black wide-brimmed hat i watched out the front door as two young boys approached our especially spooky house (we have three stories with a tower on top with a strobe warning those that chose to get too close). just as they got to the front porch i threw open the door and jumped out, and with a deep voice said, "what do you want?" knees shaking one boy looked up at me with wide eyes, pointing at his friend, and in an obviously scared tone said, "eat him!" i was at once caught in the middle of a difficult situation. my first action was to throw off my mask and assure them that i was not going to hurt them, then to offer as much candy as they would take. My second reaction, after making sure they were not scarred for life, was to quickly shut the door and roll on the floor laughing - not because i had scared them to the point of giving each other up to be eaten, but because the boy was so honest in his actions.
how many times have we passed on the opportunity to be honest and forthright because we were simply afraid.......... locked into behaviour patterns learned through years of conditioning and role-playing. not realizing what path is our "true path" takes us to many doors where the werewolves live and fear becomes our reality. in the celestine prophesy the insights learned follow a progression from recognizing coincidences to recognizing how others gain control by taking our energy - and therefore making us powerless to act.


Does this path we are meant to follow lead us to the Way? we learn our lessons and move to a higher level, free from fear and indecision - free from the paralysis of mind that engulfs us just when we come to the point of knowledge.


when you get to the door of knowledge, don't be scared - the old man with the wolf mask won't hurt you!

tagged

my lovely daughter, Calliope, in her blogsite "http://www.dobrya.blogspot.com/" initiated a "tag" to me to post seven (7) either wierd or random facts about myself that i could share with readers. also i was to enlist seven others to do the same............ another pyramid of information to bring us all closer together. well, first of all, i don't have seven friends that blog (or even know what a blog is) because i am a dinosaur and relatively antiquated for computer usage. i'm lucky that my son contributes to "http://lonelynote.blogspot.com/" music review blogsite and my daughter has started a site called "goings-on". if any of you want to be my friend and include seven random things on your blogsite i'd be closer to proving to my daughter that i'm caring, trustworthy and cooperative, even if she knows better. so here goes.....


1. when I was little i threw cold water on my brother, who was in the bathtub, and he hit me above the eye with a metal toy submarine – the scar is still there.... and you thought only a red ryder bb gun could poke your eye out......

2. i watched peter pan, starring mary martin, for the first time when I was young and that night in my sleep, thinking i was flying, jumped from the bunk bed hitting the desk. (another scar)

3. i’m very good at wiggling my ears without moving my mouth. I’m not very good at keeping my mouth closed at other times……


4. when i was 17, i climbed hochstuhl, the highest peak in the southern alps karawanken mountain range and got stopped at rifle point by a yugoslavian border guard. only because i was an american did i keep from going to jail; and because my climbing partner was cute and persuasive.


5. i’ve kayaked on all the big water in the united states: the atlantic, pacific, gulf, alaska, all the great lakes; and the mississippi, missouri, and illinois rivers. the only time i’ve ever fallen over into the water was in red rock lake, here in iowa.



6. i got knocked out cold, in college football, playing against john matusak, who later was an all-pro defensive end for the los angeles raiders – and who played “sloth” in the movie “the goonies”. Can you do the truffle shuffle? he died of suspected complications of anabolic steroid use so guess i didn't do so badly in the exchange. the "tooz" was 6'8" tall and weighed 280#. at the time he was about the biggest man in pro football. all i remember is that his forearm was as big as my thigh.

7. i sang sergeant pepper’s lonely hearts club band at 3am one morning, in harmony with a young german cabin attendant from hamburg, on the hawser deck of the ss ryndam ocean liner, while crossing the atlantic in 1967. i stayed up all night listening to rock & roll on the pirate stations in the english channel and made it back to my cabin before everyone woke up at 6am. i slept in and missed my language lessons. now i'm sorry not to know more german.



so that is my contribution to world information. i hope that it hasn't changed anyone's opinion of me in a negative direction, but that is the risk you take when you expose yourself on the internet. we are told to be careful of what we put into print. perhaps that is why i prefer being a storyteller instead of a writer. you can always say, later, that it wasn't what you said........ ask the senator from north carolina........ no, i'm not going to play "gotcha".......... well, it is an election year.......... oh, i am the self appointed head of the midwest "kayakers for obama" organization and if anyone wants to join i will declare you a member of the group........ we don't approve of shooting animals from airplanes if you are concerned......



remember, just when you least suspect it, you're on someone's candid camera. see you next time on youtube!

sentinels

throughout the ages different indigenous populations used signs and symbols to communicate with others that might not be able to understand their language. even today we use symbols on roadsigns and in buildings to let people know something when they don't speak "our language". i have been fascinated with different languages and recognize that language is truly the identification of a population, not customs or dress. losing a family language is typical now in ethnic groups because it doesn't fit into the mainstream thinking and singles out someone as "different'. our heritage is valuable as i've said and knowledge of the past lets us chart our course for the future with better results.

the stone cairns of iceland marked the way of travel or alerted travelers of places that needed heed. andy goldsworthy has made a career out of stacking things together and his cairns at the art center in des moines show the precision of a craftsman and how cohesive you can make things with care. life must also be like that when trying to fit all the pieces into a solid stable shape. i am now off on an adventure to the lava fields of keflavik where i will try out my knowledge of "íslenskur' and soak in the wonderful 'blue lagoon'. perhaps the stone cairns i left last time there will still be guiding people, and the friendships i made will also be there to guide my Way. the world looks different close to the top.......

i hope you will take time to stack your stones carefully so they will be there to guide others.....