“Seven thousand years is just one day at a time.”

~ Terry Pratchett

There is no such thing as a future, when you really think about it…

The future is always today… A second from now… A minute from now…

An hour from now… That is if you are one to keep time, which, too,

only exists if you believe it does…

~ Dana Rondel

“They will be like a tree planted by water,

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green. It has no worries

in [any year], and never fails to bear fruit.”

~ Jeremiah 17:8

I am finally back in Connecticut from my two month long trip on the road… I must say, it was truly an amazing experience, and as you read in my preceding blog post, a very grounding one too… It’s quite interesting that when we think of “rooted(ness),” we usually associate this word with a physical place we consider to be home… What I found while on the road is that, I felt an even truer sense of rootedness, as well as freedom, while traveling from city to city, and from residence to residence… This is not to say, I don’t feel rooted in my own state, city or current abode… I am merely saying, I understand even more clearly that, my true home is where my heart-center is… I’ve heard the words, “Home is where the heart is,” more times than I can remember, but now I really know and feel how deeply true this is…

“Home is where my heart [center] is.” Well, I don’t have to look far for home, regardless of where I am in the world… My heart [center] is in my own healthy and well physical body… And the beauty of this is, because I take exceptional care of my body, I am always, always at home, safely and soundly… The other joy of this is, all of my secondary material homes, I’ve made into vacation homes, even the ones I visit most often or the longest… To see our stone and mortar homes, whether or not they are actually made with stone and mortar, as vacation homes, can positively alter our experiences and heighten our perceptions of these places… Yes, including the home we have deemed our “primary home.” Normally, when we think of a “vacation spot” we think of a place or location that affords us peace and comfortability… A place specifically designed, built and/or made to provide us with the luxuries and amenities we want to have… All of our homes, life-long, primary and secondary, should be made to be this way, including the home that is our own optimally healthy and well physical body…

Back to my trip… While away, during the early part of my “working vacation,” I was gifted with a beautiful, metal tortoise trinket… Farther into my trip, I came upon a large sculpted sand tortoise while walking on Clearwater Beach; I found a yellow, toy, plastic mold of a tortoise near the ocean, an awesome, artfully designed large installment of a tortoise with angel’s wings and a harp greeted me at a friend’s church in Florida, and while on the beach board-walk, I took a picture with a big, colorfully painted and expressive tortoise… I was, of course, quite enthused by it all, as I usually am, when objects, signs and occurrences happen and/or show up repeatedly in my life… I subtly engaged my mind about the matter… This tortoise experience I was having started weeks before my trip, in the living-room of my current primary residence…

While still at home in Connecticut, I was communicating with a friend who reminded me of my first publicist out of New York… My first publicist is a truly phenomenal woman, who discovered me at Hue-Man bookstore in Harlem during one of my public talks and book signings… After our initial conversation on the first day we met, it didn’t take long before my first publicist, Jan, and I began working together… Truthfully, I think we played together more than we worked together… I didn’t mind, especially because at the time, I was in truth a “work-aholic.” Jan was a very well-connected woman who was able to get a job done… But it seems that Jan’s mission with me was to do more than establish my name among other gifted artists, musicians, writers, etc. in various industries… Jan made it clear that she wanted me to know more about me and what I stood for… Of course, she was able to articulate much about what she had come to find out about me perfectly, verbally and in writing, and I could speak very well about myself also… I knew very precisely who Dana Rondel, the writer and artist was… And I could speak volumes about my work, and its purpose; but I was still un-earthing, Dana Rondel, the person underneath all of the inner layers and external stuff… Jan intuitively knew this… She knew that, though my journey as entrepreneur was still very fresh, my focus needed to be on “self.”  So, Jan’s purpose in my life, at the time, was to slow me down and to assist me in catching up with me…

During my gatherings with Jan, we spent a lot of time talking about me, sharing delicious meals in the City, we saw “The Color Purple” together, we attended expos that afforded me the opportunity to meet unique individuals who were gifting our world with higher consciousness, we went to community events centered on empowering women, and more… My times with Jan were simply insightful and enlightening… She was my first publicist, first self-awareness coach and, if I am recalling correctly, the first person to gift me with a tortoise within my adult life… A carved wooden tortoise made into a key-chain by an artisan in Africa… It became for me a symbol of patience…

I decided to hang my wooden tortoise keychain on the dashboard in my car… where I could clearly see it… It was to remind me to drive slower… Before getting into the habit of slowing down became a reality, it took perhaps one or two people to show me the value of doing so… One morning, I was on my way to an expo to speak about my first book, “A Flower: It Has Its Own Song.”… I saw a woman, a perfect stranger, on the highway going in the same direction… Somehow she caught my attention, right before I passed her on the highway… I don’t remember seeing her again, but I found her already at the expo when I arrived… I didn’t pay it much attention, until we ended up talking during the lunch reception… In our conversation, she mentioned she saw me while we were driving… She then offered a word of advice… I won’t try to quote her exact words, but they were something like, driving slower can still get you to your destination on time… I couldn’t argue with her… She was living proof of how true her statement was… The wooden tortoise hanging on my car’s dashboard then began to resonate this truth for me, and it continued to remind me to be patient with myself… It’s what Jan wanted me to experience… Patience with myself became one of the most beautiful and invaluable gifts of my life…  As for God’s gift… A perfect stranger was made use of, to take on the characteristic of the tortoise… The quality of patience was made visible through demonstration… I could hear God saying, “It’s okay to be the hare (rabbit) when you need to be fast, but life beckons you to slow down and get to know the value of living… this way.”

When a mutual friend of mine and Jan’s brought Jan up, shortly before my summer trip in June, I thought about the wooden tortoise key-chain again… I still had it, but it was in my mother’s possession… I decided to ask my mother if she wouldn’t mind letting me have the key-chain back… She didn’t mind, so I replaced her keys on the chain with mine… This begins the journey once more with my wooden tortoise… While on the road, shortly into my trip, after sleeping over in New York for a night, I stayed with friends in North Carolina. It happened that the wife of my long-time friend in North Carolina loved tortoises and collected them… I didn’t pay much attention to this until the day I was leaving my friends’ residence.  Right before walking out the door for the car, my long-time friend’s wife pointed out items in their home that she knew I would appreciate. She then introduced me to various tortoises that were around the house… I was quite delighted by the idea that she loved these creatures… After listening to her story about the tortoises, she then picked one out of a glass bowl that was filled with other sea and sand trinkets and handed it to me… It was a departure gift to me, although we would be seeing each other again… I smiled, exhibited my gratitude then placed the metal tortoise into one of my bags… It became for me a good luck charm…

Little did I know, while traveling, what these tortoises would actually come to mean in my life… I had decided to align them with patience, good luck and whatever else I came up with… But they were showing up for a greater purpose… Frogs kept showing up too… But this story is not about my frog friends…  I’ll share the frog story at a later date… Back to the tortoise… Tortoises kept appearing whether or not I thought about them… I hadn’t focused much on the wooden tortoise or the metal tortoise throughout my trip, but that didn’t seem to matter… The Universe had a message for me, and therefore, conspired with others to ensure the message reached me… It finally did…

Tortoises can symbolize whatever we decide we want them to represent for us… I have a tendency of assigning virtues or affirmations or anything that brings good into my life with things I collect or that become repetitive showings, etc… In ancient history, within various cultures, the tortoise came to symbolize virtues that bring forth a long and healthy life… What we call, longevity… Individuals, in tribes, of various cultures, who lived long and healthy lives usually described their habits as… taking life slow… not living in excess, meaning, not having anything in our lives that we most likely will not make use of… not living in lack and limitation, for living in such a way can bring on worry and stress… having a relationship and being in-tune with the Source (Highest Presence)…  communing and being in-tune with the Natural world and having respect for and being in-tune with oneself and others… eating foods and consuming beverages that resonate with our bodies’ biology/chemistry… being innocent and free like a child… being mature in wisdom like a wise and knowing sage… and exercising not only our bodies, but our minds and hearts, too, in order to keep them pure…

We know that tortoises are very low to the ground… Tortoises also spend a lot of time inside their shell, inward… This reflects their ability to find solace, silence and stillness within themselves, while rooted to the earth, and allows them a higher quality of being, freedom… In essence, tortoises, which generally live for up to or more than 150 years naturally experience grounded-ness and freedom throughout their lives, whether on land or within water… Both qualities of being, grounded-ness and freedom, have extended tortoises’ lives… letting them live much longer than most, if not all, animals I am currently aware of… Hence, it was during my travels, while incorporating more time to be not only with family and friends, but with myself, I came to a greater understanding of an immeasurable and magnificent existence… The tortoise… and my own life…

The wisdom I gained more completely… To live more deeply with ME is the greatest gift I’ll ever give to myself… To live more peacefully and contently within my true home, my heart-center, is the most blessed gift … To feel more comfortable and safe within my own body, rooted in ME, is the most rewarding experience… To be further lifted into MY SELF, I found the deepest sense of freedom… To know, emphatically, that my life here in the physical will be a long, healthy, well, beautiful, joy-filled, happy and prosperous one is truly a glorious gift… I give thanks each day for this knowing and for all the gifts bestowed upon my life… To know that all I will ever need for the greatest and highest existence and quality of life and health… while living in my heaven present on earth, in the eternal here and now, simply, uniquely, magically and supremely… is right inside of ME… is the most fulfilling life imagined and experienced…

(Long)evity is not just our ability to live long, whatever length of time this might be for you, which is, indeed, relative… It is our ability to LIVE deeply and yet lightly… virtuously, meaningfully, softly, lovingly and openly… It is our ability to live as our TRUEST SELVES within this dynamic we call LIFE… LIFE guided by and merged with LOVE, for as long as, we ourselves, choose…

Keep a calm mind…

Keep a quiet heart…

Sit like a tortoise…

Walk sprightly like a pigeon…

Sleep like a dog…

Meditate daily…

Go to bed early… wake up early…

~ Li Ching Yuen (Lived 256 years)

 

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

Stay tuned for track 13 of 17… There’s more Nude Music coming your way via Gallery Exhibitions… Life is Good…

Tracks 13 thru 17 will not be shared via my blog… These tracks will be made into a special presentation for public viewing at one or more public galleries in various cities… Brand new dynamic images and inspiring stories will be shared with all who are able to attend… I look forward to the experience…

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 …