OK, Dr. Mike....I want to find out, and I mean FAST, what I am supposed to do with my life....
OK, I am 25 and brilliant....
OK, I am getting a good education, have really bright professors and mentors...
OK, now, also I am really gorgeous/handsome (you pick), and I want to meet the right person, I mean RIGHT NOW PLEASE!...no delays...time is ticking and I need a serious date for the prom...
OK, so you said all these flashes would happen...so where are they? Please Flash, hit me!!!
Well.......Dr. Mike has something to say.....
I love your spirit.
You are aware that this stuff is waiting for you..
You want it now because you like action, and you don't like boring nights...
You want it NOW! I understand...
I want it for you too, just so you know....
But you and I have nothing to do with WHEN it will happen or come to you...
That is the nature of the Flash, White, Blue, Pink, even Green...you are aware, you can be looking...but there will be vast stretches when you hunger for it.........I was there too.
I do know it comes through others not us alone. It comes when we maybe least expect it....
It comes in often from the side, not in front of you...
BUT, when it comes, look out, you will be blown over, you may never recover from the excitement, from the love, from the passion....
That is just the way it is....
But don't lose the faith, it WILL happen...just be ready....
Friday, April 30, 2010
Narrow Career Tracks....and Discovering That After All You Are Not Supposed to be a Banker!
Lots of yourg people follow the career track that their peers or parents think might be "cool". I did! It was banking. I spent nearly two years in international banking before I evolved on my own to follow my hunches...what I really liked more....organizational psychology...and graduate school...and then I realized that I was supposed to become an academic. I was a young professor at the age of 29.
The business field has these huge wide expanses of career..."Marketing"...."finance"...."management"....
....it leaves one wondering..."marketing...what?"...."Finance...what?"...."Manage...what?"
Unlike art, teaching, medicine, the career tracks are wide, not narrow.
The implicit assumption of the system of formal education, parents, teachers is that students will get their education, degrees and life will help them sort it out...in the formal sense, it is all macro...there are no micro resources who can sit down with a student and help find the next step....
After my own undergraduate degree at Wharton, I did my best and chose banking...then I wandered and chose teaching, then back to banking before going to graduate school. One of my Wharton professors played a big role in that...amazing, he did not have to do it, but he took me to lunch three times at the Penn Faculty Club to discuss career issues with me...out of his way....a true mentor...
I also sought out career counselling back at Penn during these years of wandering my career....it helped me personally to understand I was trying to please others with my choices, rather than finding what I wanted to do.
The breakthrough came when I went back to graduate school, left banking, and discovered organizational psychology and development as fields of study for myself...and I soared...it set my direction as a professional academic, professor, writer, creator....
Business is is a field in which for some it is hard to find one's way. It is so big and wide, and global....
What helped me was some pain of feeling I was living what others wanted, not what I wanted, and being able with the help of mentors to actually decide and take action...in my mid to late twenties...I was one of the lucky ones....
Admitting what you are passionate about, and finding something you are passionate about is a big first step....
The business field has these huge wide expanses of career..."Marketing"...."finance"...."management"....
....it leaves one wondering..."marketing...what?"...."Finance...what?"...."Manage...what?"
Unlike art, teaching, medicine, the career tracks are wide, not narrow.
The implicit assumption of the system of formal education, parents, teachers is that students will get their education, degrees and life will help them sort it out...in the formal sense, it is all macro...there are no micro resources who can sit down with a student and help find the next step....
After my own undergraduate degree at Wharton, I did my best and chose banking...then I wandered and chose teaching, then back to banking before going to graduate school. One of my Wharton professors played a big role in that...amazing, he did not have to do it, but he took me to lunch three times at the Penn Faculty Club to discuss career issues with me...out of his way....a true mentor...
I also sought out career counselling back at Penn during these years of wandering my career....it helped me personally to understand I was trying to please others with my choices, rather than finding what I wanted to do.
The breakthrough came when I went back to graduate school, left banking, and discovered organizational psychology and development as fields of study for myself...and I soared...it set my direction as a professional academic, professor, writer, creator....
Business is is a field in which for some it is hard to find one's way. It is so big and wide, and global....
What helped me was some pain of feeling I was living what others wanted, not what I wanted, and being able with the help of mentors to actually decide and take action...in my mid to late twenties...I was one of the lucky ones....
Admitting what you are passionate about, and finding something you are passionate about is a big first step....
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Practical Side of Blueflash...Finding your Ultimate Career
I knew a guy in my college class...he wanted to become a heart surgeon...he did!
I knew many who wanted to become teachers...they did!
I know someone who wanted to become a celebrated artist...she has become one!
They did not take half their life to discover it. They just did it....
Why does it seems so hard for business students to figure out their clear life vision?
Is it something about the ubiquity of the business world? that makes it somehow less a profession and more difficult, thus, to find one's way?
Author Michael Novk wrote a famous book, "Buiness as a Calling". He develops the idea that being in business is no less a sacred profession than is one in the arts...
My recent book, "Letters to a Young President" follows this idea...that our business students of today are the presidents of novel companies of the future...
But, I know, the business pathway is maybe more difficult than that in music, art, teaching or medicine...there are just so many possibilities for being in business...for positions in management.
Our business students (there are several hundred thousand just now studying in the US alone) today need to experiment, take chances, follow hunches...and mabe one third or one half way through their life, they will find the central project that will become the signature mission of their professional life....
Our role as their teachers and mentors is to help that process...it demands enormous patience for us all...but great anticipation of the possibilities that await....
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were once struggling to figure this all out....
The young guys who founded Google, Facebook, etc., stumbled brilliantly upon their thing at a quite young age...they found their art and music in business....
Passion is the central theme...it is ageless...
I knew many who wanted to become teachers...they did!
I know someone who wanted to become a celebrated artist...she has become one!
They did not take half their life to discover it. They just did it....
Why does it seems so hard for business students to figure out their clear life vision?
Is it something about the ubiquity of the business world? that makes it somehow less a profession and more difficult, thus, to find one's way?
Author Michael Novk wrote a famous book, "Buiness as a Calling". He develops the idea that being in business is no less a sacred profession than is one in the arts...
My recent book, "Letters to a Young President" follows this idea...that our business students of today are the presidents of novel companies of the future...
But, I know, the business pathway is maybe more difficult than that in music, art, teaching or medicine...there are just so many possibilities for being in business...for positions in management.
Our business students (there are several hundred thousand just now studying in the US alone) today need to experiment, take chances, follow hunches...and mabe one third or one half way through their life, they will find the central project that will become the signature mission of their professional life....
Our role as their teachers and mentors is to help that process...it demands enormous patience for us all...but great anticipation of the possibilities that await....
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were once struggling to figure this all out....
The young guys who founded Google, Facebook, etc., stumbled brilliantly upon their thing at a quite young age...they found their art and music in business....
Passion is the central theme...it is ageless...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Tough Love Side of Love....
....Small child lost at sea......
....Just a number....no one really cares....
....When someone we love leaves us suddenly....
........like, when they die, and we ...
.........cannot touch their face again...
These are the very tough moments of love.
But our love does not stop....
Love is a pure light that shines on out from our soul to the far corners of the universe...
...at the speed of light....yet it takes forever to travel...
...because it has life....through the dark night...
Love is also being apart....
It briges the farthest distances...
It brings everything back to start....
It is fear of abandonment that cripples us...
Small child lost at sea....
Lost love that seems it can never be...
There is a force, some say, that arises in the oceans, in the skies...
...where nothing is impossible....and where our spirits are free...
....where the child is saved....
....where the lost love burns again bright...
....where however great we fear being lost....
....we are saved by the light....
....and we never again fear the night....
....Just a number....no one really cares....
....When someone we love leaves us suddenly....
........like, when they die, and we ...
.........cannot touch their face again...
These are the very tough moments of love.
But our love does not stop....
Love is a pure light that shines on out from our soul to the far corners of the universe...
...at the speed of light....yet it takes forever to travel...
...because it has life....through the dark night...
Love is also being apart....
It briges the farthest distances...
It brings everything back to start....
It is fear of abandonment that cripples us...
Small child lost at sea....
Lost love that seems it can never be...
There is a force, some say, that arises in the oceans, in the skies...
...where nothing is impossible....and where our spirits are free...
....where the child is saved....
....where the lost love burns again bright...
....where however great we fear being lost....
....we are saved by the light....
....and we never again fear the night....
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
48 Lives On.....
No sooner than I posted the final essay about my friend Ricky last night, than "click" into my email dropped an email from him. It was a great note with pictures of Pandas....another amazing serendipity in my life in the last year...
BUT, wait a minute, I emailed Ricky back...."did you email me because you just saw what I wrote about our friendship...?"
No! It was just an email he sent, normally in the course of the day, loving Pandas, thinking of my loving Pandas also....no connection...
I quickly told him of the blog essay I just posted....he came back quite amazed, yet unfazed....nothing is an accident any more....48 lives on...the number never changes for either of us...now the internet is alive with the sound of music.....!
BUT, wait a minute, I emailed Ricky back...."did you email me because you just saw what I wrote about our friendship...?"
No! It was just an email he sent, normally in the course of the day, loving Pandas, thinking of my loving Pandas also....no connection...
I quickly told him of the blog essay I just posted....he came back quite amazed, yet unfazed....nothing is an accident any more....48 lives on...the number never changes for either of us...now the internet is alive with the sound of music.....!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
It's Just a Number.....Whiteflash is with Us Forever....
We often hear students from big universities say..."I am just a number"...
That has happened to many of us in life...we are just a number in somebody's big system....we feel like we are just a number...lost in the sea of masses...no identity...sometimes, it is even a safe place to hide!
When I met Ricky (I disguise the true identity of my friends and the details to protect us all...), I had no idea what was to come...
It was Beijing, 1997. Our initial meeting was a luncheon where one of our students brought us together, just thinking that we had some things in common...was he ever right....Umberto....thanks for that forever! Your intuition was so correct.
The luncheon was fine, but hurried. I suggested to Ricky that we meet on my next visit to Beijing, which I knew would be in about one month. On that next visit, I called him. He was shaken, on his way to the airport to fly back to Japan...you see, his son had just been murdered....how could I express my sympathy, I had hardly just met Ricky....
One month later, on my third visit into Beijing, I finally had the chance to have that dinner with my new friend. He told me the very sad story of how his son had become a victim of a crime...he was lost to Ricky at the age of 25....
Ricky during dinner was still shaken...but was beginning to deal with the grief. I knew my job with this friend was to listen and give comfort where I could....if I could...
......I had no idea what was about to happen at that next moment....
Ricky told me he had not accepted that his son had really died because he kept getting signals from him...strange but worldly messages...things too real to be untrue....
I could see his seriousness and determination. All I could do was to ask him about that.....
He shared that they had a favorite movie they had just seen the weekend before the son died.....in that movie, which was their favorite, the number 48 was a significant number....Ricky went on to tell me that that number was also his number, his own lucky number, most of his life, and was also his son's number. Ricky said that since his son died, that number kept coming up in different places and in different ways....
Numbers are strange things. I suppose many people have a lucky number they use all their life, by choice, if they can...it brings them luck. I suppose, that number for some has huge importance, it brings them wealth, good luck, power....they guard it....it can even be their secret number.
Now, in the strange crosscurrents of life, we are thrown together with people we call friends in the most amazing of circumstances well beyond our call, beyond our immagination...these are potentially the sacred moments....
I sat there looking at Ricky in the comfortable restaurant chair after he had just told me about the number 48 as the message he gets from his son, that brings comfort these days... how could anyone on the planet know this scheme and orchestrate it? It was unique to them....it was their family number, their family system...Ricky shared with me that night in Beijing. The night was cold...the moon had been drawn over by clouds...it was a quiet cold night in late fall in Beijing.
Except for one now small detail, one statistically improbable fact...a shining light in the darkness....I cleared my throat and said to Ricky..."Rick, sit down,,,I don't know what this means, but that number 48 is also my number, all my life....its where I lived, it was my age at the time, it is the number I played all my life as my lucky number...48!
Ricky, fell off his chair...and I had to help him to hs feet, crying...there was silence for a long time......
.........do you know what that kind of experience had on us as friends, the friendship? It sealed it. It gave us a new language...we spent hours discusing our lifetime of how 48 was a factor in what seemed were the most important happenings in our lives...
Years later, this has not stopped....the number 48 still shakes me when I see it as a sign...and Ricky is the same...when my Mother was dying I was in and out of Beijing several times that year,,,Rick would always take me to the airport, the airport coffee shop to be with me as a friend...long flights home...we would sit down, order coffee, maybe when it was rough, a scotch,...and always the gate number Beijing to SFO was Gate 48....48, the number just kept appearing....
Years later, there are periods when that happens in streaks...if there is some reason,we cannot discern it....
...but there is graceful comfort in accepting it......
Ricky and I are still close friends. I have come to see him as not an ordinary friend, but someone I had destiny to meet in this huge populated world......we had a purpose to meet, share,and connect on some magical, serendipitous stuff that will last in our memory the rest of our lives.
A number....48 was it...just a number, thats all! It made all the difference that what happened was mystical and special....and it was..... It gave us the gist of believin' in some stuff bigger than us....powerful...like who is in charge, who is boss.....certainly not us...
Ricky has led a rough and miraculous life since then....surviving cancer, retiring to another country, starting over....new life....yet once in a while 48 knocks on his door, and mine...we are reminded...at those moments...we are humbled...Whiteflash knows that number and what it means....we are still and always left wondering....Whiteflash knows the power of believing in being connected to the recently departed., the importance of bringing others to that same place to be with the ones who need help...it is all part of a plan....like it is a natural phenomenon........
Number 48 was not a whim, temporary number for me...it was long hoaned in my life...it had deep personal history...like 25 years of my using it....Ricky had the same....
Whiteflash was always there in the background, like a friend, just appeared to give us an extraordinary gift. Whiteflash sort of said to us, "hey, guys, I want you each to meet a most special friend, and here is how I am going to prove it to you both....I am going to show you that you both have this not accidental bond, but something very worldly, like a number....but it will reveal you are not alone.....it will show you that in your very worst moments, I am with you...."
.....It was just in time that we met, for Ricky, and for me too.... it was the right time. We are still deeper friends all these years later. The number has not changed for either of us...we laugh now...we laugh knowing we came close to one of the secrets of the universe....we still have that gift....number 48....it will last forever....
That has happened to many of us in life...we are just a number in somebody's big system....we feel like we are just a number...lost in the sea of masses...no identity...sometimes, it is even a safe place to hide!
When I met Ricky (I disguise the true identity of my friends and the details to protect us all...), I had no idea what was to come...
It was Beijing, 1997. Our initial meeting was a luncheon where one of our students brought us together, just thinking that we had some things in common...was he ever right....Umberto....thanks for that forever! Your intuition was so correct.
The luncheon was fine, but hurried. I suggested to Ricky that we meet on my next visit to Beijing, which I knew would be in about one month. On that next visit, I called him. He was shaken, on his way to the airport to fly back to Japan...you see, his son had just been murdered....how could I express my sympathy, I had hardly just met Ricky....
One month later, on my third visit into Beijing, I finally had the chance to have that dinner with my new friend. He told me the very sad story of how his son had become a victim of a crime...he was lost to Ricky at the age of 25....
Ricky during dinner was still shaken...but was beginning to deal with the grief. I knew my job with this friend was to listen and give comfort where I could....if I could...
......I had no idea what was about to happen at that next moment....
Ricky told me he had not accepted that his son had really died because he kept getting signals from him...strange but worldly messages...things too real to be untrue....
I could see his seriousness and determination. All I could do was to ask him about that.....
He shared that they had a favorite movie they had just seen the weekend before the son died.....in that movie, which was their favorite, the number 48 was a significant number....Ricky went on to tell me that that number was also his number, his own lucky number, most of his life, and was also his son's number. Ricky said that since his son died, that number kept coming up in different places and in different ways....
Numbers are strange things. I suppose many people have a lucky number they use all their life, by choice, if they can...it brings them luck. I suppose, that number for some has huge importance, it brings them wealth, good luck, power....they guard it....it can even be their secret number.
Now, in the strange crosscurrents of life, we are thrown together with people we call friends in the most amazing of circumstances well beyond our call, beyond our immagination...these are potentially the sacred moments....
I sat there looking at Ricky in the comfortable restaurant chair after he had just told me about the number 48 as the message he gets from his son, that brings comfort these days... how could anyone on the planet know this scheme and orchestrate it? It was unique to them....it was their family number, their family system...Ricky shared with me that night in Beijing. The night was cold...the moon had been drawn over by clouds...it was a quiet cold night in late fall in Beijing.
Except for one now small detail, one statistically improbable fact...a shining light in the darkness....I cleared my throat and said to Ricky..."Rick, sit down,,,I don't know what this means, but that number 48 is also my number, all my life....its where I lived, it was my age at the time, it is the number I played all my life as my lucky number...48!
Ricky, fell off his chair...and I had to help him to hs feet, crying...there was silence for a long time......
.........do you know what that kind of experience had on us as friends, the friendship? It sealed it. It gave us a new language...we spent hours discusing our lifetime of how 48 was a factor in what seemed were the most important happenings in our lives...
Years later, this has not stopped....the number 48 still shakes me when I see it as a sign...and Ricky is the same...when my Mother was dying I was in and out of Beijing several times that year,,,Rick would always take me to the airport, the airport coffee shop to be with me as a friend...long flights home...we would sit down, order coffee, maybe when it was rough, a scotch,...and always the gate number Beijing to SFO was Gate 48....48, the number just kept appearing....
Years later, there are periods when that happens in streaks...if there is some reason,we cannot discern it....
...but there is graceful comfort in accepting it......
Ricky and I are still close friends. I have come to see him as not an ordinary friend, but someone I had destiny to meet in this huge populated world......we had a purpose to meet, share,and connect on some magical, serendipitous stuff that will last in our memory the rest of our lives.
A number....48 was it...just a number, thats all! It made all the difference that what happened was mystical and special....and it was..... It gave us the gist of believin' in some stuff bigger than us....powerful...like who is in charge, who is boss.....certainly not us...
Ricky has led a rough and miraculous life since then....surviving cancer, retiring to another country, starting over....new life....yet once in a while 48 knocks on his door, and mine...we are reminded...at those moments...we are humbled...Whiteflash knows that number and what it means....we are still and always left wondering....Whiteflash knows the power of believing in being connected to the recently departed., the importance of bringing others to that same place to be with the ones who need help...it is all part of a plan....like it is a natural phenomenon........
Number 48 was not a whim, temporary number for me...it was long hoaned in my life...it had deep personal history...like 25 years of my using it....Ricky had the same....
Whiteflash was always there in the background, like a friend, just appeared to give us an extraordinary gift. Whiteflash sort of said to us, "hey, guys, I want you each to meet a most special friend, and here is how I am going to prove it to you both....I am going to show you that you both have this not accidental bond, but something very worldly, like a number....but it will reveal you are not alone.....it will show you that in your very worst moments, I am with you...."
.....It was just in time that we met, for Ricky, and for me too.... it was the right time. We are still deeper friends all these years later. The number has not changed for either of us...we laugh now...we laugh knowing we came close to one of the secrets of the universe....we still have that gift....number 48....it will last forever....
Thursday, April 22, 2010
This is "Real Earth" Day!
Well, It's here....the "real" Earth Day! Plant a tree. But make sure to plant your feet, right down solid on Mother Earth, our planet, our home, where volcanos, rising waters, fires, winds, all remind us who is really boss. We are just passengers for a while. Respect the Mother Ship! She does take care of us, but demands respect.
Enjoy her. Go find a Greenflash this evening, if the horizon is clear and you can see the sun go down over the water. Find a waterfall, feel the mist on your face...find a fresh snowfall and taste a snowflake! See the tiger in the bush, burning bright, ever in the night.
Find that face you love to see and kiss it. Touch it. Pinkflash is a gift here on Mother Earth.
Look to your sides today. See if some surprise is there waiting. Something good, I hope. Something you hoped for, asked for...Whiteflash is out there...
Stay on your pathway toward your life purpose. If you are not sure, look down, see your feet planted on this Earth and see them moving toward something you love...Blueflash spirit is alive today!
Sun is up in California, coffee tastes good this morning...not another average day....
Enjoy her. Go find a Greenflash this evening, if the horizon is clear and you can see the sun go down over the water. Find a waterfall, feel the mist on your face...find a fresh snowfall and taste a snowflake! See the tiger in the bush, burning bright, ever in the night.
Find that face you love to see and kiss it. Touch it. Pinkflash is a gift here on Mother Earth.
Look to your sides today. See if some surprise is there waiting. Something good, I hope. Something you hoped for, asked for...Whiteflash is out there...
Stay on your pathway toward your life purpose. If you are not sure, look down, see your feet planted on this Earth and see them moving toward something you love...Blueflash spirit is alive today!
Sun is up in California, coffee tastes good this morning...not another average day....
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Do You Know What Day Is Coming? One More Time Whiteflash Says Hello!
Here we go again...
Earth Day, April 22, 2010...its coming....
Most of the planet's billions of souls do not know, or even care. Yet, look what has just happened! The Iceland volcano just changed the lives of tens of millions, maybe more, and no end is in sight...Last time this one decided to erupt in the 1820's, it lasted two years...but that was before we we were an interdependent global world...we did not need to board jetliners in those days...this time, guess what, there could not be a more literal and direct message...."we better respect the Earth!", I mean not just planting trees, but knowing that our lives are also tied to earth's natural forces beyond what all humans can possibly know or influence...
It does not matter whether you are a "Global Warming" type, a "Climate Change" concerned intellect, or even oppose such labels and movements...what is the truth is that no one ever knows what the forces of the Earth can bring to our civilization, our society, our travel plans, our Sunday afternoon tea with friends...which just got cancelled...we are humbled again...Whiteflash reminds who is really the boss...
Earth Day...it happens each year...we are reminded we share this soil and its disruptive forces of wind, high water, fire, smoke and ash...and we are leveled in the fight against it.
...how can we even think that the Icelandic dark cloud of smoke...a kind of bad Greenflash...could be changed, altered, re-directed, minimized, or controlled by us human souls on Planet Earth...? Haha...that is a real delusion...we are just passengers on this plane...the real one...the place where we just plant our feet..
Earth Day has new meaning to me. Mother Earth, Father Sky...Whiteflash...deliver us from evil...how can we begun to understand these forces...we are humbled...we respect this Earth...for its sunsets over water...for its Greenflash we are given as a gift to see...we respect the ultimate power of the biggest place we call home...the round sphere we call Home, Planet Earth...
Whiteflash teaches us what we cannot control...we ask for something and make an offering in return, if there is some big thing worth everything to ask for...the rest is up to the forces of nature and the ultimate gift I call the Whiteflash moment...if we are graced...if it is given...there is no guarantee.
...so on Earth Day, we could ask...and we could offer...something like this..."We have collectively now seen how small we are to the power of the Earth's forces...if we come from this place and time...and if we can have a chance to not be hurt too badly by this cloud which could shut down a continent from trade and transportation, and economic sustainance as we know it..shut down for an unknown period of time...if we acknowledge and pledge our respect for this Earth in our individual life...we pledge a new respect for it all...Planet Earth, our efforts to respect and just begin to understand it...we ask for relief for a while...so we can gather our human strength, to live on..." If you believe in prayer...that might be one...if you just believe in credos and pledges...this may be your moment...
...we respect Earth, our ultimate homeward bound place we call "home", and we celebrate our respect for taking a part in helping that home...
Earth Day, I'll bet on April 22, if you have read this piece, will have new meaning...one more time, Whiteflash has said "Hello out there...can you hear me?"
...I will hear you...I am one of the luckier ones who got home...
Friday, April 16, 2010
Homeward Bound....You Bet Your Ash!
I knew there was something special about this UAL Pilot. I watched him speak in native English to the gate personnel at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam just prior to boarding my homeward flight yesterday from Europe.
Then he spoke perfect Nederlands also to some of the on-ground personnel. Oh well, that's what pilots are...amazingly bright and adept professionals.
The flight boarded fast, and I noticed we actually left the gate at pushback 10 minutes before normal. Then as I was settling into my chair after takeoff, I watched in amazement as United 909 flew a fast circle up and East over Amsterdam, then turning South. Climbing fast in not your ordinary takeoff...like we were being chased. We were! After more than an hour we were heading into southern France. I sort of had an idea of what was happening, but when I walked with this pilot after we landed at Chicago O'Hare, I had the chance to ask him about flying this great "southern circle" route...
Yes, indeed, he said, "we just made it out of there"...they were going to close Paris and Schiphol soon and now most of Western Europe is all closed down...I said, "Nice job Captain!" He smiled and nodded with the satisfied look of a pro doing another day's work...but it was CLEAR! He wanted to beat that system of volcanic ash heading down from Iceland. AND we made our on time arrival, what United is proud of these days. This was a lucky day for me, but not for thousands of other stranded travellers worldwide, now with no clear end in sight...
We are at times able to connect the dots. You see these were the dots of good luck for me...this was precision, timing, and professional judgment like it is fun to witness...I am sure this senior United Captain is enjoying his role as cultural ambassador, precision professional, and I suggest this is dot connected to the fact that my pilot yesterday was a guy who has been in his career fulfillment for some many many millions of miles, and a worldwide member of what I would call the "Society of Blueflash Professionals"...what else might explain his calmness, his cultural ease, the quickness and deft judgment he showed in leaving early, taking his best route around the big ash cloud, and still rocketing us home on time through the winds and altitude of the North Atlantic. Homeward bound is a strong force...its great to see this...thanks again, Captain! It's great to be home...
Then he spoke perfect Nederlands also to some of the on-ground personnel. Oh well, that's what pilots are...amazingly bright and adept professionals.
The flight boarded fast, and I noticed we actually left the gate at pushback 10 minutes before normal. Then as I was settling into my chair after takeoff, I watched in amazement as United 909 flew a fast circle up and East over Amsterdam, then turning South. Climbing fast in not your ordinary takeoff...like we were being chased. We were! After more than an hour we were heading into southern France. I sort of had an idea of what was happening, but when I walked with this pilot after we landed at Chicago O'Hare, I had the chance to ask him about flying this great "southern circle" route...
Yes, indeed, he said, "we just made it out of there"...they were going to close Paris and Schiphol soon and now most of Western Europe is all closed down...I said, "Nice job Captain!" He smiled and nodded with the satisfied look of a pro doing another day's work...but it was CLEAR! He wanted to beat that system of volcanic ash heading down from Iceland. AND we made our on time arrival, what United is proud of these days. This was a lucky day for me, but not for thousands of other stranded travellers worldwide, now with no clear end in sight...
We are at times able to connect the dots. You see these were the dots of good luck for me...this was precision, timing, and professional judgment like it is fun to witness...I am sure this senior United Captain is enjoying his role as cultural ambassador, precision professional, and I suggest this is dot connected to the fact that my pilot yesterday was a guy who has been in his career fulfillment for some many many millions of miles, and a worldwide member of what I would call the "Society of Blueflash Professionals"...what else might explain his calmness, his cultural ease, the quickness and deft judgment he showed in leaving early, taking his best route around the big ash cloud, and still rocketing us home on time through the winds and altitude of the North Atlantic. Homeward bound is a strong force...its great to see this...thanks again, Captain! It's great to be home...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Still in Warsaw....Pinkflash Is Everywhere!
OK, you guys, you want to know what I know...is life experience really the ultimate teacher on what passionate pink flash is all about? In matters of the heart, in matters that concern why we get so stirred up in passion, what are the basic lessons?
So here is lesson one...the stuff of Pinkflash "chemistry"...like adrenalin rush, sensual touch, etc...applies to all ages of the human race...my own bigger audience for this book...
There are the 20's...
The 30...'s...oh, my...life is getting on with it...
The 40's...what the ?
The 50's...well, now let's really look and see...clock is ticking....
The 60's...I am there, but trying to be objective, cannot judge...I am "still young"...( please love me...! that is what we all need to hear!!!)
................OK, enough already!
I know someone who is 92, still romancing a sweetheart at 87...
I know someone who is 21 in love with a woman who is 32...
I know someone who is 50 who has romantic fantasies about someone whi is also 50, both married to someone else...
I know someone who is 62 whose heart was overwhelmed by a woman who is 29...
Complexities, yes....fantasies....yes...chemistry, yes....reality...that is the seriously difficult part of the equasion...
Maybe that is why internet romance is so possible...no one touches...no one gets really hurt legally....but both people get inter-twined in a deep soul-heart relationship...people share from their heart and chemistry still flows, but no one is touched...
BUT this is about really biology stuff..the maternal and paternal urge to have a child...the hormonal urges of both sexes to have offspring of some kind of more than genetic, even biological or racial preferences......
A friend said to me, his destiny was to see a child born with asian eyes, specifically he felt his life destiny was to have a child with a Japanese wife and he can actually see the eyes of his child....his own and that of a yet to be found Japanese wife...this was a deep passionate statement from his heart..
This part of Pinkflash is about deep life destiny, chemistry, mothers, daughters and sons, even fathers influencing the whole issue...
This is about mothers putting pressure on daughters to have baby "before it is too late"....
This is powerful chemistry, hormonal...I am not that expert...but I see the connections..
There is the overwhelming drive to have mates who fit with one's life mate concept..
There is the overwhelming biologicogical and genetic drive to produce children..
People enjoy sex..
We want to personally make our stake on this planet with our own genetic heritage, of which we are proud..
Thus, at the base of pink flash may be this wonderful germ of life itself!
Whiteflash blesses these moments of creation. There is a single moment of creation of each of us!
We create children with our faces...beautiful eyes...beautiful smiles we can recognize as our own..
Some want to see their face merged with that of their loved one in the eyes and smiles of a child...
The wealth of the planet's population is increased and enhanced...but we now must take care.....!
Pinkflash is many dimensions, but chemistry, hormones are driving forces we cannot deny...
So much more to come...
Chemistry is not the only dimension, not at all....
So here is lesson one...the stuff of Pinkflash "chemistry"...like adrenalin rush, sensual touch, etc...applies to all ages of the human race...my own bigger audience for this book...
There are the 20's...
The 30...'s...oh, my...life is getting on with it...
The 40's...what the ?
The 50's...well, now let's really look and see...clock is ticking....
The 60's...I am there, but trying to be objective, cannot judge...I am "still young"...( please love me...! that is what we all need to hear!!!)
................OK, enough already!
I know someone who is 92, still romancing a sweetheart at 87...
I know someone who is 21 in love with a woman who is 32...
I know someone who is 50 who has romantic fantasies about someone whi is also 50, both married to someone else...
I know someone who is 62 whose heart was overwhelmed by a woman who is 29...
Complexities, yes....fantasies....yes...chemistry, yes....reality...that is the seriously difficult part of the equasion...
Maybe that is why internet romance is so possible...no one touches...no one gets really hurt legally....but both people get inter-twined in a deep soul-heart relationship...people share from their heart and chemistry still flows, but no one is touched...
BUT this is about really biology stuff..the maternal and paternal urge to have a child...the hormonal urges of both sexes to have offspring of some kind of more than genetic, even biological or racial preferences......
A friend said to me, his destiny was to see a child born with asian eyes, specifically he felt his life destiny was to have a child with a Japanese wife and he can actually see the eyes of his child....his own and that of a yet to be found Japanese wife...this was a deep passionate statement from his heart..
This part of Pinkflash is about deep life destiny, chemistry, mothers, daughters and sons, even fathers influencing the whole issue...
This is about mothers putting pressure on daughters to have baby "before it is too late"....
This is powerful chemistry, hormonal...I am not that expert...but I see the connections..
There is the overwhelming drive to have mates who fit with one's life mate concept..
There is the overwhelming biologicogical and genetic drive to produce children..
People enjoy sex..
We want to personally make our stake on this planet with our own genetic heritage, of which we are proud..
Thus, at the base of pink flash may be this wonderful germ of life itself!
Whiteflash blesses these moments of creation. There is a single moment of creation of each of us!
We create children with our faces...beautiful eyes...beautiful smiles we can recognize as our own..
Some want to see their face merged with that of their loved one in the eyes and smiles of a child...
The wealth of the planet's population is increased and enhanced...but we now must take care.....!
Pinkflash is many dimensions, but chemistry, hormones are driving forces we cannot deny...
So much more to come...
Chemistry is not the only dimension, not at all....
Sunday, April 11, 2010
So....How Did We Meet? Pinkflash is Born from Distance!
A friend signaled me today about this....how we can begin to understand Pinkflash....our life track with romantic love...at a distance...she understood....she and her husband/soul mate connected across the planet....as do many of us....by total accident...right? Check the word..."total"....I will let you be the judge...
So, let's cut to the chase....why "Pink", not "Red"? Well, pink is the color of valentine heart candy, for one....
pink is less dramatic than "red", and we all know, romance is subtle, not always out there in "RED"!!!
I have used the term, "free fall"....yes, we, who truly know what this is in our lives, would all admit, we are not in total control...half the fun is in the "fall".....like "falling" in love.....
This section of the "Four Great Flashes of Life" will take several essays, at least!!!
This one will just try to jump start everything....
Love at a distance....cross cultures...cross worlds...
Thus....
Oceans by night over water...
But, somehow, in this big universe, I met you...
Our paths were not meant to cross...
Our hearts were meant to take the loss...
....unless...
...The wild world can play with me and you...
...in the searing heat of the desert...
...the quiet of the jungle...the eye of the tiger...
...silent, but ever vigilant in the night...
....speaks straight to our heart in flight...
And to our hearts true...
...we found each other...in the long walk...
...life is anew!
So, let's cut to the chase....why "Pink", not "Red"? Well, pink is the color of valentine heart candy, for one....
pink is less dramatic than "red", and we all know, romance is subtle, not always out there in "RED"!!!
I have used the term, "free fall"....yes, we, who truly know what this is in our lives, would all admit, we are not in total control...half the fun is in the "fall".....like "falling" in love.....
This section of the "Four Great Flashes of Life" will take several essays, at least!!!
This one will just try to jump start everything....
Love at a distance....cross cultures...cross worlds...
Thus....
Oceans by night over water...
But, somehow, in this big universe, I met you...
Our paths were not meant to cross...
Our hearts were meant to take the loss...
....unless...
...The wild world can play with me and you...
...in the searing heat of the desert...
...the quiet of the jungle...the eye of the tiger...
...silent, but ever vigilant in the night...
....speaks straight to our heart in flight...
And to our hearts true...
...we found each other...in the long walk...
...life is anew!
Warsaw Today...Whiteflash Reminds Us Who Is Boss!
This country has just been rocked with the air tragedy that killed its President and half of the top government officials...we are reminded that Whiteflash moments can also be tragic...we are not in control...we may sometimes think we are, but we are really not....
I was greeted at the airport by my old friend, co-author and dear friend, Andrzej, still giving dynamic professorial lectures to doctoral students at 79....
But, Andrzej is the spirit of the new Poland. He always was. Even when it was "old Poland"....he looks to the rim, the horizon and sees far beyond what most can see...
He knows the spirit of Whiteflash....he knows that the human spirit rises, always, to meet whatever it must meet...
....we are never finished with Whiteflash...it shows us its power in our lives, from love, to miracles, to tragedy...
...we are not alone....
Thanks, Andrzej!
Friday, April 9, 2010
On the Verge of Pinkflash...
Can hardly believe I am here....not that Whiteflash is finished, but that I can move on....
This one is really tough for me. Pinkflash...romantic love... It has my highest and lowest moments of my emotional-heart life...
Ask yorself:
1. How many people have you been romatically involved with in your life?
2. What happened? Are you satisfied?
OK, we will visit this hugely important topic....
This one is really tough for me. Pinkflash...romantic love... It has my highest and lowest moments of my emotional-heart life...
Ask yorself:
1. How many people have you been romatically involved with in your life?
2. What happened? Are you satisfied?
OK, we will visit this hugely important topic....
New Post: Wow! I have to own up...Whiteflash..OMG!
OK, you guys, you want to really know, what I have to say here...
...sit back...take a deep breath...
First, of all, let's re-visit the topic...Whiteflash is when you or me receives a BIG wakeup call....so much so that you cannot just sleep...you really have to ask yourself in front of that mirror or picture window what is happening...
...serendipity...synchhonicity..."accidents" do not happen........
I ran into my step daughter some years ago on the Highway 5, she was cleaning the wiendshield as was I...had not seen her in years...it solved a mystery...who cut the cat's whiscers...
You see, I had a vision of who cut the cat's whiscers earlier that morning....it was not my son...it was her...but much forgiven...it was just that I had a vision of that mystery of our family dynamics before it played out...on Interstate 5...that Sunday morning...fully 10 years after I had any contact with that family...
The Truly Remarkable Event of My Life
I am the proud father of my son Ryan, who is 30. I can still remember so close how it felt to hold him as a baby..like yesterday....he would totally be bashful with this story...
.....so I will tell it in another way to protect the innocent...
Rick and his wife were so wanting a child...they tried and failed three times. The first "trimester" is critical...many babies are lost at 3 months...."spontaneous obortion"....miscarriage...
Rick and his wife suffered these experiences...three times.....three losses...how were these loving parents to take this? Rick had given up on being a Dad...
They got help...like the Cornell University Medical Center, NYC........major tech help....
....pregnancy happened....the baby was born...successsful case........
Now, to my story,...
It was Christmas eve, 1978, Ithaca, New York...the snow was building...they said it would be a major snowfall...no one thought it would be 3 feet by morning...
I was watching it build up outsside...
So, I was all alone by the fireside...you have to see this....it is a classic upper New York farm living room with a big roaring fireside..
OK, you now know, what I was carrying...would we ever have a child? Would this child be born? It was, after all, Christmas Eve...I was all alone..
I was all alone with my fear.......one more time a failed birth...
I was, for the first time in my life, truly all alone......truly alone....
...what could I do...?
I took to what I only knew...as an artist, I sketched in charcole...on a tablet..
...the fire was burning so bright...the snow was piling up outside....
...it was Christmas Eve...
...my hand just sketched...it was minutes, but now years ... live forever...
...it was the head of a baby! I had no idea what I was sketching...
Ryan Michael McManus was born, a totally heatlhy baby, July 25, 1979.
He is now 30 and I am anticipating being a grandfather in June to two identical twin daughters..
Ryan has been from my arms to the arms of his company, and he is blesssed...
But, here it is.....the sketch I made that night, December 24, 1978 was of a baby...his exact profile
I asked one of the very few prayers in my life.....that he would be OK...that night...I prayed...if I even know what prayer means....it means to so many throughout the world what it is...for me, that night, I was in total weakness...I was on my knees.....I just said..."if my baby has a chance, I will devote my life to something good...I prey in strength"
Six months after Ryan was born, I took out that sketch. I had signed my oath to God, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1978, our Creator that evening, like a contract, I now call "oath of Angels"..
The picture of Ryan was exactly as he appeared as a child 6 months old.
He would not want me to tell this story. He is so very modest.
It is my true evidence that when we ask for help, it is there for us....it was there for my family.
Whiteflash has visited me all the rest of my life....it is a great mystery, yet, at times, so clear...
I have come to believe that when we are in true need, several times in our life, we can make an offering like this....I believe it will be heard and answered...
From that moment, and when I think this through all my life, I believe, my "Credo" is that we are not alone...when the answers are so abundant, how could we ever be alone? But, it seems we need to ask, and we need to be willing to give something in return...
....keep on believing....
...sit back...take a deep breath...
First, of all, let's re-visit the topic...Whiteflash is when you or me receives a BIG wakeup call....so much so that you cannot just sleep...you really have to ask yourself in front of that mirror or picture window what is happening...
...serendipity...synchhonicity..."accidents" do not happen........
I ran into my step daughter some years ago on the Highway 5, she was cleaning the wiendshield as was I...had not seen her in years...it solved a mystery...who cut the cat's whiscers...
You see, I had a vision of who cut the cat's whiscers earlier that morning....it was not my son...it was her...but much forgiven...it was just that I had a vision of that mystery of our family dynamics before it played out...on Interstate 5...that Sunday morning...fully 10 years after I had any contact with that family...
The Truly Remarkable Event of My Life
I am the proud father of my son Ryan, who is 30. I can still remember so close how it felt to hold him as a baby..like yesterday....he would totally be bashful with this story...
.....so I will tell it in another way to protect the innocent...
Rick and his wife were so wanting a child...they tried and failed three times. The first "trimester" is critical...many babies are lost at 3 months...."spontaneous obortion"....miscarriage...
Rick and his wife suffered these experiences...three times.....three losses...how were these loving parents to take this? Rick had given up on being a Dad...
They got help...like the Cornell University Medical Center, NYC........major tech help....
....pregnancy happened....the baby was born...successsful case........
Now, to my story,...
It was Christmas eve, 1978, Ithaca, New York...the snow was building...they said it would be a major snowfall...no one thought it would be 3 feet by morning...
I was watching it build up outsside...
So, I was all alone by the fireside...you have to see this....it is a classic upper New York farm living room with a big roaring fireside..
OK, you now know, what I was carrying...would we ever have a child? Would this child be born? It was, after all, Christmas Eve...I was all alone..
I was all alone with my fear.......one more time a failed birth...
I was, for the first time in my life, truly all alone......truly alone....
...what could I do...?
I took to what I only knew...as an artist, I sketched in charcole...on a tablet..
...the fire was burning so bright...the snow was piling up outside....
...it was Christmas Eve...
...my hand just sketched...it was minutes, but now years ... live forever...
...it was the head of a baby! I had no idea what I was sketching...
Ryan Michael McManus was born, a totally heatlhy baby, July 25, 1979.
He is now 30 and I am anticipating being a grandfather in June to two identical twin daughters..
Ryan has been from my arms to the arms of his company, and he is blesssed...
But, here it is.....the sketch I made that night, December 24, 1978 was of a baby...his exact profile
I asked one of the very few prayers in my life.....that he would be OK...that night...I prayed...if I even know what prayer means....it means to so many throughout the world what it is...for me, that night, I was in total weakness...I was on my knees.....I just said..."if my baby has a chance, I will devote my life to something good...I prey in strength"
Six months after Ryan was born, I took out that sketch. I had signed my oath to God, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1978, our Creator that evening, like a contract, I now call "oath of Angels"..
The picture of Ryan was exactly as he appeared as a child 6 months old.
He would not want me to tell this story. He is so very modest.
It is my true evidence that when we ask for help, it is there for us....it was there for my family.
Whiteflash has visited me all the rest of my life....it is a great mystery, yet, at times, so clear...
I have come to believe that when we are in true need, several times in our life, we can make an offering like this....I believe it will be heard and answered...
From that moment, and when I think this through all my life, I believe, my "Credo" is that we are not alone...when the answers are so abundant, how could we ever be alone? But, it seems we need to ask, and we need to be willing to give something in return...
....keep on believing....
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Whiteflash...How Do I...?
As I wind down Whieflash....the next essay will be the one that lowers the boom,,,my own story...
But before that day, I will just say, there is only one way I know that exists to bring Whieflash into our lives...it is A way, maybe not for all, but it did help me on one or occasion or two in my lifetime...is that enough? When you really need help, maybe one or two times is enough...
Buckle your seatbelts......
But before that day, I will just say, there is only one way I know that exists to bring Whieflash into our lives...it is A way, maybe not for all, but it did help me on one or occasion or two in my lifetime...is that enough? When you really need help, maybe one or two times is enough...
Buckle your seatbelts......
The Anatomy of Serendipity....Whiteflash As Far As We Can Go....
The title of this essay says it all...wow! How could we humans ever understand what is above human understanding? Whether pain or love?
So, I will give it my best...for you and me to stand back and see if this makes sense...
These moments are, first of all, moments...they take place in a flash...
These moments have deep meaning in our lives, like profound dreams....
These "accidents" have the most key people in our lives at that moment....maybe they are temporary friends, maybe they are lifetime friends or extended family...
There is an element of 'total surprise'....we are shocked...we are reminded we are human, not divine, maybe on the way, but we are earning our place....we are humbled with the shock/surprise element...it is beyond statistical probability....there is something else operating...I call this the ultimate wake-up call...we are not alone...
That is where it gets real fuzzy....who is He? Who is She? Could we say, "OK, I see you, but now can I communicate with YOU?"..................................
That answer is never clear.......but we are left to interpret signals.....that is our great tease-game of life...
Sometimes the evidence is, for some people, just plain overwhelming....there is no doubt...
...for most of us.......it remains a lifetime journey of squaring up with the reality....
.........there is something greater than us out there..........he or she/ he and she are with us....they are part of our cosmic genetic composite.....we are no accident.....civilization....down to each of us with our dreams....we have genetic, cosmic uniqueness and uniquely spectacular personal destiny......and even more personal, a big advocate....out there, somewhere....
Yes, we still need to do our own resumes to the highest standard. The global economy will give us and our families a rough ride...we will be tested....
....and we will rise to the test, every day, in every way.....
....because, in the end, we are not alone.....
So, I will give it my best...for you and me to stand back and see if this makes sense...
These moments are, first of all, moments...they take place in a flash...
These moments have deep meaning in our lives, like profound dreams....
These "accidents" have the most key people in our lives at that moment....maybe they are temporary friends, maybe they are lifetime friends or extended family...
There is an element of 'total surprise'....we are shocked...we are reminded we are human, not divine, maybe on the way, but we are earning our place....we are humbled with the shock/surprise element...it is beyond statistical probability....there is something else operating...I call this the ultimate wake-up call...we are not alone...
That is where it gets real fuzzy....who is He? Who is She? Could we say, "OK, I see you, but now can I communicate with YOU?"..................................
That answer is never clear.......but we are left to interpret signals.....that is our great tease-game of life...
Sometimes the evidence is, for some people, just plain overwhelming....there is no doubt...
...for most of us.......it remains a lifetime journey of squaring up with the reality....
.........there is something greater than us out there..........he or she/ he and she are with us....they are part of our cosmic genetic composite.....we are no accident.....civilization....down to each of us with our dreams....we have genetic, cosmic uniqueness and uniquely spectacular personal destiny......and even more personal, a big advocate....out there, somewhere....
Yes, we still need to do our own resumes to the highest standard. The global economy will give us and our families a rough ride...we will be tested....
....and we will rise to the test, every day, in every way.....
....because, in the end, we are not alone.....
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Deep in the Heart of the Global Traveller....
When we are on planes, high above the seas...
We look down, knowing we will never see...
Though the journey means so much...
This moment is so alive we want to touch...just you and me..
Out that window is all the worlds we wonder...
Our budgets, our schedules travel asunder...
When we are close to home...
It is nearly impossible to recon we are finally with our own...
Another day, another world...
Spiriling toward what we know is our truth twisted and twirled..
Yet we pull it off...landed...
Home, at last, I can say "I am grounded"
Travel again, say you...
So near and far...
Without me and you...
That is our travel star...for us out a far...!
We look down, knowing we will never see...
Though the journey means so much...
This moment is so alive we want to touch...just you and me..
Out that window is all the worlds we wonder...
Our budgets, our schedules travel asunder...
When we are close to home...
It is nearly impossible to recon we are finally with our own...
Another day, another world...
Spiriling toward what we know is our truth twisted and twirled..
Yet we pull it off...landed...
Home, at last, I can say "I am grounded"
Travel again, say you...
So near and far...
Without me and you...
That is our travel star...for us out a far...!
Earthquakes....Enough, Already....Let's Get on with Whiteflash....Are You Ready?
Serendipity...the occurance in time of uncanny events, happenings which have no logic...they appear to be coincidences...
Some twenty or so years ago, I experienced about thirteen amazing events in the space of about four weeks. I was so marvelled that I actually started counting them and writing them down...
One was that I had a close personal professional friend. I drove to Los Angeles about 3 hours to pick up my aunt to visit us. Halfway through the drive, I was overtaken by my thoughts of Margaret, my friend. I stopped for gas at halfway point. There she was with Jim, her husband. We all said a big "hi"....it was for me quite amazing....
For the next weeks, there seemed to be a string of uncanny "accidents". I was so overwhelmed, I made a list... To this day, Margaret and I have a joke about this type of thing...we just laugh...knowing....
My father in law died about fifteen years ago. He was a Taiwanese farmer. I attended the funeral as a member of the family, and it was profound, let me tell you. Culturally, the funeral was so different than what I would have known in my American culture. The Taiwanese traditional religion and family embraced me. I was so overwhelmed, I took notes for my life diary....
Now, years, later, when I am with my wife's family in the mountain village, I take solitude and take the motor scooter up into the mountains....I go to the burial site. No one knows. But me. I find solitude there. I see the mountains and the valleys. I remember the funeral and all the family love that was shown. I never knew my father in law that well, but I seek solitude and peace in those valleys and hills and sit there alone and give thanks for my life.
Whiteflash moments are with us all our lives, we just need to see them....
Obviously, more to come. This flash is so big, we could talk forever....
Whiteflash lives forever....Whiteflash is forever!!!
Some twenty or so years ago, I experienced about thirteen amazing events in the space of about four weeks. I was so marvelled that I actually started counting them and writing them down...
One was that I had a close personal professional friend. I drove to Los Angeles about 3 hours to pick up my aunt to visit us. Halfway through the drive, I was overtaken by my thoughts of Margaret, my friend. I stopped for gas at halfway point. There she was with Jim, her husband. We all said a big "hi"....it was for me quite amazing....
For the next weeks, there seemed to be a string of uncanny "accidents". I was so overwhelmed, I made a list... To this day, Margaret and I have a joke about this type of thing...we just laugh...knowing....
My father in law died about fifteen years ago. He was a Taiwanese farmer. I attended the funeral as a member of the family, and it was profound, let me tell you. Culturally, the funeral was so different than what I would have known in my American culture. The Taiwanese traditional religion and family embraced me. I was so overwhelmed, I took notes for my life diary....
Now, years, later, when I am with my wife's family in the mountain village, I take solitude and take the motor scooter up into the mountains....I go to the burial site. No one knows. But me. I find solitude there. I see the mountains and the valleys. I remember the funeral and all the family love that was shown. I never knew my father in law that well, but I seek solitude and peace in those valleys and hills and sit there alone and give thanks for my life.
Whiteflash moments are with us all our lives, we just need to see them....
Obviously, more to come. This flash is so big, we could talk forever....
Whiteflash lives forever....Whiteflash is forever!!!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
OK.....You Won't Believe This....Unless, Of Course, You Can Handle Whiteflashes
I started to write about Whiteflash last night. I spoke about synchronicity and serendipity.
Last night I dreamt that we had a big, swaying earthquake at my home. I almost wanted to mention it this morning, thinking maybe we had one in the middle of the night....sometimes we do....it could have felt like a dream....
Then, as I was sitting in the sun by my pool, this afternoon at 3:43 Pacific Daylight Time, it happened....just like the dream...a 7.2 swaying earthquae that lasted 25 seconds...the pool had a small tidal wave that lasted about 10 more minutes...
This has not happened before to me. Maybe it was just an amazing cooincidence. I will be thinking this over for a long time....
Whiteflash just happens and when it does, we are stunned....the ultimate wakeup call....but it is always wraped in enormous mystery....it reminds us how frail we are....the message is that we are not alone...
...that message itself is like the biggest earthquake or tidal wave we could ever respect...
...we are not alone!
Last night I dreamt that we had a big, swaying earthquake at my home. I almost wanted to mention it this morning, thinking maybe we had one in the middle of the night....sometimes we do....it could have felt like a dream....
Then, as I was sitting in the sun by my pool, this afternoon at 3:43 Pacific Daylight Time, it happened....just like the dream...a 7.2 swaying earthquae that lasted 25 seconds...the pool had a small tidal wave that lasted about 10 more minutes...
This has not happened before to me. Maybe it was just an amazing cooincidence. I will be thinking this over for a long time....
Whiteflash just happens and when it does, we are stunned....the ultimate wakeup call....but it is always wraped in enormous mystery....it reminds us how frail we are....the message is that we are not alone...
...that message itself is like the biggest earthquake or tidal wave we could ever respect...
...we are not alone!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Anatomy of the Whiteflash....Part One!
Easter Eve...the night of Good News.
Christians celebrate eternal life...others stand by, watch and celebrate springtime in the northern hemisphere... There is enough good news in this season for those of any faith, any creed, any place...
Whiteflash is one of the four great flashes of life...it is the ultimate wakeup call...when we know we are not alone. There is a tap on our shoulder, something happens which is too far out to be "normal", so we have to wake up....there is no choice...
When I was younger, I fought off the message...it was "subtle", of course, so I could marginalize it...it may have been an accident...
When I got older, the evidence started to pile up...the incidents happened more and with greater frequency...it became hard to deny...
..."when the student is ready, the teacher will appear"...
The famous author Scott Peck wrote about "synchronicity" in his best selling book, "The Road Less Travelled"....it is about moments in our lives when it is just absolutely impossible that there is any worldly explanation for what has just happened...something out of the ordinary takes the moment...we are in a real life drama...we can't get out...we are in it...it has enormous surprise...usually something very good...maybe just a major insight...or a gift....we are not expecting....it happens....we can't deny...
Milder versions of these moments have been called "senerdipity"...things that are of "coincidence"...they have double meaning...they seem like marvelous moments when other things are brought together in our minds, emotions..
"There are no accidents"....
This phrase you will hear often, especially from me. I believe that these golden moments, whiteflash moments are divine and sacred. Their origin? I cannot prove, for sure...but I suspect that there is a greater force some may call "God" or "Creator" that is standing there as the author of it all...
I think people in their twenties might have possibly experienced overwhelming moments. People in their thirties have just begun to see this...People in their fourties have started to experience moments they cannot trace to any known source...folks older know this...
Some very young, who may be very, very gifted, see the message early in their youth.
When it happens, you realize you are not alone in the universe. I mean, you see other loved ones as fellow passengers, but you know that there is another force out there greater than all of us, at least responsible for the very intricate, splendid "accidents"....it is a reassuring, somewhat frightful at first message....
Anatomy...so what is this and how does it work? It is nearly total mystery, at any age. We seem not to be able to invoke or bring about whiteflash moments....
Actually, we may need to be peaceful and not to press for these, because, when we do,it seems especially hard...when we relax, they seem to come...
My role is to just signal this phenomenon in our lives...to bring us to realize it...I cannot get inside it and describe its inner workings...
On Easter Eve, the moment of meaning for so many millions on the planet, I can just say, welcome to the human race....this is one of our sacred inheritances....the ability to recognize a totally unexplainable wakeup call...a beautiful "accident"...when it happens in your life...
This is just the beginning of my sharing of Whiteflash moments....more to come...
We are not alone...let's dance in the moonlight and celebrate the Good News...if we are awake, we will see amazing connections and meanings and there will be a series of inspiring events, unexplainable by earthly logic, in our lives....
...be ready for the wakeup call that proves to you that you are not alone....good morning!
....more to come....
Christians celebrate eternal life...others stand by, watch and celebrate springtime in the northern hemisphere... There is enough good news in this season for those of any faith, any creed, any place...
Whiteflash is one of the four great flashes of life...it is the ultimate wakeup call...when we know we are not alone. There is a tap on our shoulder, something happens which is too far out to be "normal", so we have to wake up....there is no choice...
When I was younger, I fought off the message...it was "subtle", of course, so I could marginalize it...it may have been an accident...
When I got older, the evidence started to pile up...the incidents happened more and with greater frequency...it became hard to deny...
..."when the student is ready, the teacher will appear"...
The famous author Scott Peck wrote about "synchronicity" in his best selling book, "The Road Less Travelled"....it is about moments in our lives when it is just absolutely impossible that there is any worldly explanation for what has just happened...something out of the ordinary takes the moment...we are in a real life drama...we can't get out...we are in it...it has enormous surprise...usually something very good...maybe just a major insight...or a gift....we are not expecting....it happens....we can't deny...
Milder versions of these moments have been called "senerdipity"...things that are of "coincidence"...they have double meaning...they seem like marvelous moments when other things are brought together in our minds, emotions..
"There are no accidents"....
This phrase you will hear often, especially from me. I believe that these golden moments, whiteflash moments are divine and sacred. Their origin? I cannot prove, for sure...but I suspect that there is a greater force some may call "God" or "Creator" that is standing there as the author of it all...
I think people in their twenties might have possibly experienced overwhelming moments. People in their thirties have just begun to see this...People in their fourties have started to experience moments they cannot trace to any known source...folks older know this...
Some very young, who may be very, very gifted, see the message early in their youth.
When it happens, you realize you are not alone in the universe. I mean, you see other loved ones as fellow passengers, but you know that there is another force out there greater than all of us, at least responsible for the very intricate, splendid "accidents"....it is a reassuring, somewhat frightful at first message....
Anatomy...so what is this and how does it work? It is nearly total mystery, at any age. We seem not to be able to invoke or bring about whiteflash moments....
Actually, we may need to be peaceful and not to press for these, because, when we do,it seems especially hard...when we relax, they seem to come...
My role is to just signal this phenomenon in our lives...to bring us to realize it...I cannot get inside it and describe its inner workings...
On Easter Eve, the moment of meaning for so many millions on the planet, I can just say, welcome to the human race....this is one of our sacred inheritances....the ability to recognize a totally unexplainable wakeup call...a beautiful "accident"...when it happens in your life...
This is just the beginning of my sharing of Whiteflash moments....more to come...
We are not alone...let's dance in the moonlight and celebrate the Good News...if we are awake, we will see amazing connections and meanings and there will be a series of inspiring events, unexplainable by earthly logic, in our lives....
...be ready for the wakeup call that proves to you that you are not alone....good morning!
....more to come....
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