Ukraine...How are You?

Somehow, someone likes my blog in Ukraine.  Whoever you are, I appreciate the interest.  Let me know how you found my wrting and why you visit.

Just shows how absolutely global our world is.
I was in Kiev several times in the 1970's and 1980's....Odessa in 1986.....

Strosvoitzia!

Thanksgiving and Homecoming

Most of the things we all are actually thankful for are the basic things of life.  Our warm house and bed, our loved ones who wait for us every day.  The ones we depend on and depend on us.  Our dog, our cat.

Yet, sometimes Thanksgiving gives us something completely new.  Something worth living an extra mile for, an extra year or more for...maybe a whole life for.....it blows us away because it is such a gift that we could never have even imagined it, nor asked for it.  Usually, these extraordinary gifts are people and things brought to us through new people.

Every year's new gifts.  That's it.  The New Gifts of Thanksgiving.

These may not even be at home.  They may be out in the street.  They may originate far from home and in strange places,,,,they may seem to come as strange gifts.  Yet, after we look, we look twice and we just get turned around.

Thanksgiving is not neat and orderly and predictable.  It is the Season of the most serendipity,  If you believe in Whiteflash, it gives us the gift of life, through people who likely end up staying with us as major forces in our life.  True gifts. 

We can ask for the gifts like this.  No guarantee.  There seems to be some extra grace added by the Creator to deliverance of the gifts.  We need some modesty, some humor, and some patience.....But, if the elements are just right, get prepared for one of the most incredible Thanksgivings of your life. 

I know that for me, to thank is better than to ask .....and it is better to thank than want.   Genesis of love and new good things starts with honest thanking........

My year brought me some new souls I now love so much, and  some new friends.  They have the potential to change my life.  I guess I could say this Thanksgiving, it was the people, not the turkey that mattered.  Turkeys taste good, but people always are the ones we base our life on.    The rocks of life like Plymouth Rock was a long time ago.....It has never changed.  It is the Creator's statement that some things we can touch and come back next year and touch again.....

I am grateful to all our troops and the men and women who protect us at their life's risk.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

White Flash in the Most Inconspicuous Places

The great thing about Whiteflash is that it does appear at the most amazing moments...like when we least expect it...or when just maybe, our deep intuition does expect it....let me explain...

You are down and depressed and exhausted, and then, just then, there is a huge storm and a rainbow....it happened today on my way home on the freeway!

The nature of Whiteflash is that it has a curious almost mind of its own, yet one we can understand and even sense before things happen...collective conscious?  Preconscious state of mind?  Maybe, but there is something about the state of mind we are in....If you are not open-minded to the possibilities, you will not see what could happen and may miss the golden serendipity...

We can't guarantee Whiteflash moments in our lives....but we cannot ever be so bold to say that they will not show up....

New life grabs us and gives us deep purpose to live and thrive again....amazing people just become gifts....
Whiteflash comes in from far places...and yet, Whiteflash was there all along, just a breath away....

Airports

The places the faces we see when we are about to fall over...
...from tiredness, anticipation, perspiration and the unknown....
...from the lack of a friendly face to say "would you like to have a cup of warm tea?"

These places, faces are with us...they link our world.  We must pass through them...
They are like hotels.....warm tea, maybe?
They are like museums...like a stellar exhibit of people and art.....waiting for coffee...

Airports are places where we meet and say goodbye....
We can select a soft goodbye...two hours with coffee cake and kisses...
But the goodbye happens, at some stark point, when the clock dictates, it moves us....
But it moves us to the best and last human touches of hand to face, fingers to lips and lips to lips....
Airports move our hellos and goodbyes, always have, always will...
...so. I now look for the next time..airport...will bring her to my arms....
Warm tea, waiting....forever....then life happens in an instant when we can meet and hug and say hello...
after a long spell.....that seems forever until we smell the tea!
Together in each others arms....the tea smells sweeter....and it always will

9/11 is Here Again....and so is the Heart of the Artist!

The passion of the artist, whoever he and she is, wherever they are.....is palpable.  We can hear their heartbeat as they put their passion before us...

CIBU has the extreme honor of one of its honorary doctorates being Captain Jason Dahl, Captain of United 93.....and his best friend who carries his torch, our honorary doctor Captain Mark Hoog of United.  For many, many of us, this day is as close as family, sisters, brothers, loved ones.  And best friends.

So many of my countrymen and women have tried to say what this day is....this video is the best I have found to say what I feel today....

www.youtube.com/v/QZFkZiwMLZ4

9/11 is here again....welcome to our Ship of Friends...we stand with each other together....forever...

A Sign of the Times

On a flight to Korea last December, I sat in First Class on the short haul flight from San Diego up to San Francisco International, then boarded the long 11 hour flight to Seoul...so in the early morning short flight, a nice surprise happened.  The Captain sent me a nice personal note of gratitude for my loyalty to United, written on the back of his business card.  I thought it was a real nice gesture, had seen it once before, in fact.

I happened to have a copy of my Four Flashes book just published with me, and gave it to this Captain after the landing with my own comments penned inside the front cover.  I saw him and wished him well.  It felt good...another of my books out there....give forward....

Last weekend I received a surprise email from the United Captain.  He was working on some mundane paperwork, and there my book was for some short inspirational minutes....I guess it made it easier to get through the tough part he was dealing with.....he said it felt that he had an angel on his shoulder,  Reading the book lifted some of the stress.  I thought what a nice note eight months later. 

Today I was already boarded and in my seat on United 395, Chicago to San Diego, and the Captain emerged from the cockpit.  He looked at me with a sign of recognition and showed thumbs up.  For a split second, I thought it was this Captain.  Later I would ask just to see if that miracle would happen.

Two minutes later he came back to me and said, "Michael, you are the author of the Four Great Flashes book...I stood up, we shook hands and said "Another major serendipity!"  We both stood in awe.  He was very kind.  He said a heartfelt "welcome on board!"...

He flew it well, nice landing, eight minutes early...

As I said goodbye, I gave him my new book....  It felt good.  I wished I had grabbed a picture to capture that moment.

White flash gives us gifts of each other, mostly always good, mostly reminding us we have some rivers of lives that bring us amazing moments, against all odds, far beyond chance...., in this case  even a second or third time.

The landing was smooth this evening....it was a white flash landing all the way....

This is a true story....
I think I needed that or something to lift my spirits....

I hope to see him on a future flight...when my next book is ready to give over....

How can we ever imagine the chances of that happening.....
Like it has so far....

The Second Hurdle

You and I love each other....we know that in every human way....now we have cultures and OMG...languages....

OK, so Very much to do

... I mean very much can be sorted out from bed to kitchen on how the day will go, but the finer points of love and who does what next....that requires some friend or expert who can step in and really do the job of excellence.....translation.....helping out

They, the helpers, the translators, are there to help....

When Love prevails....everybody learns each others' language...

Passion is the great communicator!