“Like a tree you have to find your roots

and then you can bend in the wind.”

~ Angela Farmer

Since June 8, 2016, I have been on the road… My travels have included riding a bus from one state or city to another… Stop-overs to spend quality time with friends, old and new…  Time at concerts to hear awesome music played and/or sung by people I know, and some who I would’ve enjoyed learning more about… and visits to local parks, beaches and other places that totally rejuvenated me, lifted my already enthusiastic mood and that have inspired my work… I have photographs with some of the friends that I spent time with and of the places I visited… I have shared one above with me during a walk on Clearwater Beach in Florida… And one below of me at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, Florida… The rest will come with a story… Stay tuned…

This current trip is my “working vacation.” Before setting out from home in Connecticut, I decided this trip would entail the completion, or partial completion, of business goals… as much play as possible… rest when my mind and body requires me to do so… more educational and entertainment opportunities… and, of course, room for wonderful surprises… So far, I’ve left each place where I spent time with at least one or more golden nuggets… My knowledge and wisdom has continued to increase… I’ve learned to trust myself even more… I’ve gotten the chance to build and strengthen relationships… I’ve let some relationships go… I’ve adopted new customs taught to me by friends of various cultures to improve my own health and well-being… In addition, I’ve spent a large portion of my time with absolutely beautiful, brilliant and creative children who have reminded me of the importance of being like a child… How can you not enjoy playing in the dirt… I love it! There’s so much to learn from young people… And there’s so much for children to learn from us… The depth of truth and awareness made visible within an adult-child relationship is truly a rare gift… a magical experience… An insightful journey…

I think of myself as the consummate teacher-student… As teacher and student, simultaneously, you come to value more the roles of giver and receiver… For quite some time, mostly during my adult years, I found it much easier for me to be the giver… The giver of life… The giver of love… The giver of peace… The giver of time… The giver of gifts… The giver of advice… The giver of ideas… The giver of money… The giver of… and the list goes on… Perhaps, this quality became prevalent in me, because, for much of my life, I was raised in a home where the woman was the head, a matriarch… As the role of mother, giving of oneself, mind, heart, body and all is a very natural experience…  So it became natural and comfortable for me to be a giver too… And it fostered in me a sense of independence and freedom… I loved having the ability and means to give to others, and I deeply appreciated being able to give as much as possible to myself… Yet, what I’d almost forgotten is that the role of receiver is equally important…

Within the years I was re-learning how to re-balance my life as giver-receiver, I hadn’t known that it would create in me the tremendous receptive nature I now have… I’m not saying, I answer, yes, to everyone and everything… I am simply conveying, I have opened myself, to a greater degree, to relationships and experiences that allow me a higher quality of life… These relationships and experiences include individuals whose cultural practices exhibit how a small and single change to one’s body-care can further increase health and well-being… Had I not developed a positive relationship with my own body, there is a possibility I may have looked down on my friend’s personal suggestions and on the new practices introduced to me… And who would’ve thought that within my forties, I still find it so much fun to make mud pies and dirt cakes and pretend to eat them with my young companions… Had I been afraid to get my hands and clothes dirty, I would’ve made excuses to avoid this type of enjoyment… I love that I am an adult who trusts and plays like a child…

 It took becoming my bigger self to understand this clearly…

I thought most, if not all, of my choices and experiences in life

were about whether or not I trusted others…

I finally learned… life is not about this,

it’s about my trust in myself…

and my trust in God…

Trust is not just letters and a word…  For humanity, it is an energetic experience… Which means, trust is an energy that has breath and life; therefore, it is much more powerful than some of us have understood… Why haven’t some of us understood or even acknowledged the true power of trust… Probably because it is not tangible like a smile or like physical touch… In most cases, it exists for us when we can attach it to a thing that is more concrete in nature… Why that thought? That language or response? That action? Which one was the impetus? Trust…  Awareness…  Maturity… Innocence… Love…  Fear…  Maybe, all of the preceding are the sources of what we think, feel, say and do… If not all, and I had to choose one source that influenced my thoughts, feelings, words and actions, then that source would be, trust… Truthfully, the experience of trust is lived moment by moment, day by day, without one realizing how it prompts our thinking, emotions, speech and movements… Trust begins its influence in our lives the moment we are born… Possibly before this time… It may always remain an intangible energy for us, but it is indeed an energy expressed and observable in myriad ways… Do I trust… Do I not trust… Do I only partially trust… Your thoughts, feelings, words and actions will show and tell…

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders…”

~ Hill Song – Let Hope Rise

Once we are present in the material world, who, what, when, where and how we begin to trust is further demonstrated by us and by others… As a child, we either remain innocent within our experiences, invariably trusting the flow of life and the experiences brought to us, or we respond based on our observance of others, their conditionings and indirect or direct teachings… Either way, we are always developing our relationship with trust… What is the difference between a child who decides on its own to one day stand and take his/her first step without another’s guidance or support, and the child who frequently/constantly requires the guidance and support of another… Is it simply the way each child has observed life and has been taught by others… Trust, like fear and love, can be conditional or unconditional… Self-taught, naturally and purely learned, or facilitated by past observances and external influences… I am aware that our relationship with trust has come by our ability to be our own teachers and too students of others…

“There are two gifts we should give our children;

one is roots, and the other is wings.”

~ William Hodding Carter

So what is the middle ground… Is it our ability to accept and cherish the wisdom of time, our elders’ knowing, because they have lived longer… Is it our freedom to choose our own way, for we have been gifted with a mind that is free… and is it as well to learn the way of Nature… To be like trees… How beautifully rooted they are and yet can still bend to an fro in the wind… To be like birds, whose wings can lift them into the sky and as well perfectly place them onto the earth below… I respect the wisdom of time, our elders’ life experiences and knowing… I am equally grateful for the gift of choice… letting me choose my own way… I, too, am in awe of Nature and how it un-biasedly teaches us… The strength, fluidity and rootedness of trees create for me and in me a stillness that flows limitlessly and uninhibitedly…  The lightness, grace and motion of birds cause me to know and see that life will carry us when we let go and give way to the gifts of God within… So what is the middle ground… For me, it is to live without fear… To know that wherever I stand and whoever I stand with, the foundation beneath me, whether earth or sky, will hold me, simply because of what I believe and know within my own mind.

Time is both teacher and student… It makes for us the present… We make for it a life… Freedom and choice are both teachers and students… Freedom is what we become for it… and what it becomes for us… Choice is the past re-living itself or… a clean present.. and new future… Trust… whether conditional or unconditional… Let it both root you and, simultaneously, give you wings… Trust Life… Trust Yourself… Trust God… Trust Love… Be like the innocent child… Still young in heart, and mature in unconditional love…

God made dirt… and dirt don’t hurt… Just kiss it up to God…

May we all kiss our love up to God…

 in order that God may purify the love in our hearts again…

*****

“The affirmation of one’s own life, happiness, growth

and freedom, is rooted in one’s capacity to love.”

~ Erich Fromm

 

biashedo™ ~ My Universe Is Friendly… Inside and Out… And So Is Yours…

 

Stay tuned for track 12 of 17… There’s more Nude Music coming your way… Life is Good…

Photography: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Imagery Concept: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Sustainable (Un)Clothing : Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign (UCC) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Check out our Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign… “Fashion ~N~ Frame(s)” project:

www.partnersingoodwill.com  … Join our Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign Facebook Page

Watch the Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign (UCC)  “Fashion ~N~ Frame(s)” short feature video:  Gofundme.com/UnifeyedColorsCamp

For more about me and my life views visit, www.windinc.org and pickup my latest book, “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership” or all of my books, there’s currently a total of 7, at: www.amazon.com … www.barnesandnoble.com … www.partnersingoodwill.com … This latest project, “My Recycled Life… Within The Compilation of (Un)Framed Music…” was inspired by Chapter 10  ~ Doing More That Matters … written in the book  “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership”

Learn more about biashedo™ at windinc.org … Select the link for the Healthy Lives Campaign (HLC) on the right side of our home page to reach the official Healthy Lives Campaign site, or simply click the preceding highlighted text… I have also written a more detailed blog on biashedo™ posted on January 6, 2016… Check it out too… danarondel.com …