Written In The Stars And The Planets

It makes sense to me in this day and age of Google and resources such as Wikipedia that the finding of answers to endless questions is simply a mouse click away.

But having friends who are willing to share the knowledge they, personally, have accumulated through their own years of  seeking is not quite so easily accessible.

The wisdom of others, first hand and expressly for one’s own self, is a commodity most likely to be accrued only if: a) you have the benefit of unique friends beyond Facebook; b) these particular friends will take the time to talk directly to you; and c) these particular friends have any wisdom at all that might be tendered you, in any fashion involving anything other than a generic link shared via email, tweet or a text.

Well, so much for the rest of you that simply love this high tech, high speed twenty-first century living which I do not!

Beyond the simple benefits of a fairly minimal amount of time spent online, I am still a small town being who will, no doubt, remain a bit like a farmer, even into my dotage; “farmer” to me meaning something akin to a Medicine Man.

I still have an affinity for real people interacting with real people, silly me.

Yahoo for my simple but not so simple ways!

My Possible Society In Motion Radio Show co-host, Jack Slattery, joined me today on my Anastasia The Storyteller Radio, bringing with him a storehouse of personal understanding of astrology and applied it to ME, directly, in our live broadcast.

Jack had, believe it or not, in this day and age, taken the time; his own very time, to investigate my “personal” astrology birth chart, called a “natal chart,” in the language of those who know something of the subject.

Thus, lo and behold, in Jack’s assisting me to introduce my “Anastasia The Super Sleuth” alter ego, public persona caricature who is also the official voice of New Horizons’ Possible Human, Possible Society Study, he brought some of his own accrued knowledge of astrology to help explain to the show’s listeners – and me -- how I got from “there”to here.

Darn if I can get a grip on it my own self!

Now I’m thinking that perhaps I just might be able to better figure out the journey I’ve been on since my days of Hot Pants, Motorcycle and K Street with a little help from my friends.

That is, of course, including someone, Jack in this case, helping me look to the stars and the planets to expand my understanding.

If you “believe in astrology” or not, I thought Jack and I did a very fun and lively Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show, today, introducing “Anastasia The Super Sleuth.”

Check it out!

Maybe your inquiring mind, too, might be inspired to look to the stars and the planets for some self-analysis.

Read "Anastasia The Super
Sleuth" Says" Stories

If so, most likely you’ll have to do it online, ha ha!

Few people, these days, have someone like Jack to help who will actually take the time to assist you in making a bit more sense of the online data than you can make from a web site.

Ha ha, again!

Of course, to each his own.

P.S.

“Anastasia The Super Sleuth” is not only very smart but devoted to devilment when it comes to making her points!

You are probably beginning to notice this, aren’t you?

Note: Jack also helped bring us another lively show discussion with a bit of a basis in astrology on our last Possible Society In Motion Radio Show titled, "The Way It Is: Accepting the Light and Dark."

Check that one out too!

Getting From There To Here

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.”Lao Tzu,  Chinese philosopher

These are famous words. We’ve heard them countless times. So when I opened up a fortune cookie one day last week, following a Chinese take-out meal, it was almost too easy to dismiss the words.

Then on second thought I decided to more reflectively consider them.

“After all, I told myself, if you (meaning me) have been guided by a prophecy for over forty years, isn’t it time, now, to pay a bit more attention to the little markers you’ve been heeding along the way.

Opportunity or insight knocks, open the door!

If you want to make genuine sense of it all, at least as best as is possible, take your own advice and lean in to whatever cues and clues present themselves. The lean in practice can be applied as much to yourself as to others."

So I said to myself, "Admit it, Anastasia, you have, on occasion, allowed even a fortune cookie to mean a thing or two!

Again -- after all -- the more than 15,000 days you’ve lived since that prophecy came to you, you've had to cover your ground step-by-step, moment by moment, hour by hour and so forth. There are footprints you left behind. Seek and find them where you can. And heed the guideposts you find along the way as you continue on, even from a fortune cookie.

This wasn’t simply an Uncle Remus, Disneyland Magic Kingdom Matterhorn ride from there to here.

“Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip- a-dee-ay. My oh my what a wonderful day” hasn’t exactly been altogether the tune of these days past.

No siree!"

Then I implored the "I" inside of me, "Where is the meat and bones of the journey, Anastasia?

Blood, sweat and tears has been more like it than Uncle Remus! Now SEE it, know it and spill it, Anastasia!"

Ok, I told myself, I will do like Dore in “Finding Nemo”, “Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming” until my mission is complete.

So I will, I assert. It has, after all, been a wonderful adventure in spite of the troubles. 

Why not dig deep and get to the heart of all that has been so I can know more about it, even for myself than I do right now?

But it is a challenge, ladies and gents. I'll tell you that!

In trying to tell the many tales of the journey, totally a hero’s journey if there ever was one, I find myself, these days, seeking further expansions of formerly held perspectives; discoveries of how I got from “there” to “here.”  I want to explain it better to myself as well.

And, I will succeed on this mission! It is, after all, my nature to dig deep and find whatever is there to be found. I am determined!

That’s what makes me, not only Anastasia The Storyteller but, also, Anastasia The Super Sleuth! 

(Which, by the way, I like a whole lot better as a persona than that old Marcia E. Rosen, hot pants, motorcycles and K Street sex pot, sometimes look alike for Nancy Sinatra in her "These Boots Are Made For Walking" bygone days. 

Oih veh!

You will hear more about this tidbit as our shared travels reveal it here. 

Oih veh, again!! OMG!!)

So I admit to myself, Hot Pants, Motorcycles And K Street: In The Era Before Watergate does not seek to tell only a bland tale when actually I have lived a rather invigorating life.

And, the adventure of writing this memoir is not only for the reader’s illumination and/or a gift for my daughter to help her better know who she is -- and - ME.  It is also the progression of another chapter in my life’s adventure as I endeavor to make sense of it and integrate it into my, mainly, but not perfectly well-lived life.

Though I am definitely still short on answers for my many musings in this regard, my most conscientious investigations do draw me down deep, up high and all around.  

In particular, presently I am searching for the beginnings.

Where are they, I wonder?

This life at the very moment of conception, my nine months in utero or the day my mother was delivered of me?

Or do I begin lifetimes ago?

Do the sun and the moon, the planets and stars have answers for me? I’ve lately renewed my investigations in this direction too.

Again and again I ponder age-old questions, the self-centered ones, “where did I begin? And the corollary where do I end or do I?

Mystery!! I must be willing to accept that which seems to remain beyond my frail, human mind.

So I wonder and wonder, seeking contentment when all else fails.

How did I get from “there” to here?

Stay tuned in to what I discover, at least the parts I am willing to tell.

Still, my journey, truth be told, is actually a shared one. Come along and tell your side of it too! 

Jack Slattery and I will be storytelling on my next Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show.

“Anastasia,The Super Sleuth Says –“

Saturday, September 27, 2014

11:30 a.m.

Think about joining us! 

Step Right Up, Ladies and Gents!

“I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do!”

I’m not going to go all out to be mysterious. I am gonna do my best to tell you like it is (and has been).

But darn this “Prophecy” thing of mine -- and the adventure it presaged -- is not an easy thing to tell, much less write about in 5oo words or so.

So, I have asked Jack Slattery, my Possible Society In Motion Radio Show co-host, to help me tell my tale to you , as best as I can, on my Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show.

The BIG DAY for the beginning of my disclosures about “My Prophecy,” richly expanded by live broadcast and discussion, is tentatively set to be Saturday, October 25 on Anastasia The Storyteller -- if a) Jack can make it; and b) “G-d willing and the creek don’t rise,”

(In the meantime you can read a "draft" text outline about My Prophecy here.)

This tantalizing program, “Anastasia’s Prophecy Comes Alive,” will be preceded by a prelude kind of show titled,

“Anastasia,The Super Sleuth Says –“

Saturday, September 27, 2014

desribed as follows –

"Anastasia The Storyteller" is also Anastasia The Super Sleuth, who is also the Executive Director of the New Horizons’ Support Network, Inc., a community development and violence prevention non-profit organization. 

As the lead researcher of New Horizons' Possible Human, Possible Society Study, I (Anastasia) have/has been re-discovering an innate capacity to move beyond the "Cost of The Quiet" in order to make explicit the dire societal and political problems that each and every one of us could help reverse, if only we would.

Who could have known what this study could bring?

"Anastasia, The Super Sleuth" among other things.!

On this program, "Anastasia, the Super Sleuth" begins opening the doors to the adventure she has been on that has now become the Possible Society In Motion Project and its associated study, as well as  the various other programs and projects of the New Horizons Support Network, Inc.

Read Anastasia’s/my behind-the-scenes anecdotes on the "Anastasia The Storyteller" blog site for personal stories that brought NewHorizons into being and has sustained it through some very dark times to findthe Light it is now seeing.

Also visit the New Horizons' Small "Zones of Peace" Project blog site for how viewpoints, personal and professional, are presently being put into play at New Horizons. 

The best is yet to come!

Anastasia The Super Sleuth says, "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way."

Details on these shows, broadcast or podcast are at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/anastasiastoryteller

P.S. If this all is not enough to satisfy your curiosity, please write me at: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com, for a summary description text about "My Prophecy", now in progress, along with the rest of my life. 

I will send you a personal copy via email.

Making It Relevant

Writing a memoir is not the equivalent of a text or a tweet. Writing memoir is serious business. Not given to even having a Facebook account and barely grasping what Twitter and tweets are really about, I do, at least, understand them to be a short form of communication, if true communication is what they are really about.

However, if one is to genuinely make the commitment to communicating through memoir in this day and age of sound-bytes, there must be some intention of deep devotion. Otherwise, why bother with the long form when the short might suffice?

Especially as one’s readers are not going to take anywhere near the author’s time investment for writing in imbibing said product.

With these contemplations in mind, I got to thinking about my intentions for writing this story I have titled, Hot Pants, Motorcycles And K Street: In The Era Before Watergate, this past week, as well as my envisioned end point for the project.

There are, indeed, multiple agendas for the venture as well as a number of desired outcomes. Among them, of course, is the setting-the-record straight one. Along with that one goes the telling of my truth as best I know it and the leaving behind of some form of coherent legacy.

Then it occurred to me that there is, also, an intention to offer some sort of wisdom to readers, if, indeed, there are to be any or, hopefully, many. There is a yearning, of course, to want one’s life to have made some kind of sense to oneself as well as those left behind. A wish for the trials and tribulations to have accrued a few worthy lessons to pass on. These are woven into my agendas and the hoped for results of the undertaking.

A wish that the life journey one has traveled might be of some benefit to those who are to come after, to even offer a bit of hope to others in moments of challenge. These, too are present. My particular objectives, also, include a wish that some unknown others might ease the distress so many of us are feeling in these troubled times about our society and politics.

At the outside edge, for me, there is even a yearning that from what I have learned and share others might discover hints on how to be game changers in this crazy off balance world in which we are now living. I think I’d like that a lot; to be remembered as someone who had grown astute enough to know how to upset the applecart of the dark side and its malicious aspirations.

I own that I have that kind of mischievousness in me.

I hope the markers I am intent on leaving behind will inspire that in some, perhaps for the courageous, as I have been, or maybe the foolhardy which I also have been. Remember to always try to manage this track with fun, if you can.

The making relevant of this tome of mine, in progress, was energetically discussed by my honorary daughter, Terry, my long-time friend, Gloria Livingston, and myslf on my “Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show” when I had just begun to write Hot Pants, Motorcycle and K Street last year.

I listened to the podcast today, again, to gain some perspective on the issue of making this book relevant. The podcast gave me some reminders of what we were considering about my book writing project, then, at its outset. And, I gained some insight from hearing the show again. 

You might also. You can hear that show, “Making It Relevant” with this link.

Your comments on the project are welcomed. I am intent on writing this book in a kind of “we” process though the main effort is mine.

Terry, in particular, helped me, then, to stay straight on the issue of how my stories can be made relevant. She has always done that for me. I invite you to contribute the same.

Living Prophecy, Not Only Receiving It

Forty years is a very long time, in my book, to trust that a single prophecy might mean something in one’s life. But now, as I look back on it and try to piece together what has happened for me since; the how and why of it, the miracle astounds me.

But what is prophecy anyway?

Wikipedia defines “prophecy” as a statement that something will happen in the future or the power or ability to know what will happen in the future.

This is exactly how it was for me on August 7, 1974, the day before Nixon resigned his presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal.

I got my “instructions” while I was lying on a gurney in a recovery room. I had just come out of surgery for a corneal transplant. It was my fourth transplant and whereas the other three had failed this one would succeed. It would serve me well for close to twenty-five years, only to reject in the heat of another presidential scandal; the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.

That circumstance might alert you to the significance for me regarding Watergate and that which was to become my life-long passion since; to answer one question, answer it well and share what I have learned.

The question was: How could the President of the United States of America lie to the American people?

And, its corollary: How could so many people believe this lying president, or seem to?

Forty years it has now been since that prophecy. And the prophecy and my passion to follow it has defined the course of my life.

What I now know about both “analyzing and solving the problem” is golden!

The only challenge is that “knowing” and “doing” are not the same. The solution or solutions, as it turns out, are totally a “we” thing.

Now, I believe that a Power Greater Than Myself brought me a metaphorical golden goose, named Martin G. Groder, M.D.. Marty, according to my personal myth did give me the golden egg he laid. As a result of my having had this particular prophecy given to me, it came to pass, then, that this especially glorious egg just happened to be the perfect alchemical ingredient to make the prophecy fluorish.

This in itself was the first miracle of the prophecy. 

If you believe in miracles, continue on to discover my tale in full, sooner or later.

My task, now, is to pass on to you what this prophecy brought me to discover, making clear, as I do, how we can, together, utilize what came to be of it to help make a glorious soufflé of the days of our lives -- and -- a legacy to pass on to those who come after us.

This is in alignment with the instructions of my prophecy.

I will tell you more as we go forward from here.

Yet I may still be talking around it, in your opinion.

But I think I am getting closer and closer to the precise telling. At least enough so that you will be able to ask informed questions of me – and – get more completely to the essence of it all, for yourself.

This will enable you to take what I offer. Perhaps, merge it with your own intuitive and/0r scientific knowledge and then move ever more closely to the best possible life you and I can imagine.

At a point I believe we will be able to discuss this on my “Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show” when the time is right.

Thus, the “Cost of the Quiet,” at least on my end will, hopefully, be recouped.

But my goodness what a cost there has been carrying it until now!

The Prophecy: Part 2

Darn – in my mind’s eye I had it all planned out to tell you, my devoted visitors, the details of my prophecy and my experience of it. It was given to me on August 7, 1974, the day before Nixon resigned his presidency. I thought I would celebrate the fortieth anniversary by sharing it, or at least some time in August, 

But I’m not ready yet.

This prophecy, the one and only of my life, has so much shaped my life that I must do it the justice it deserves. It has so much to do with everything I hold dear for me and about me – and – for and about New Horizons. I cannot simply spill it all out in one gull swoop dive.

I’ve got to lead up to it, talk around and about it.

Since I am not given to teasing (or at least not much), allow me to direct you to a description of my prophecy by another writer, my dear friend, investigative journalist and author, G.M. (Mike) Corrigan.

I have just recalled that Mike described my prophecy in his Frederick News Post article about me and New Horizons in a lovely interview, "Finding Light In The Darkness," August 6, 2006.

Here is a link that can take you to Mike’s reporting on my prophecy as I shared it with him.

Now isn’t that odd? His article was published the exact day before the thirty-second anniversary of the prophecy. The world and its rhythms sure are interesting!

An astrologist could no doubt make something of this.