Back From Vacation…

Not all of it fun by any means as an emergency eye surgery took up much of my time and most of my physical and emotional energy these past few months.  So I did a lot of struggling to climb the mountains of my soul while I have also been taking a time-out, wrestling with myself to adjust to the possibility of possibly being blind again.

The saga is not over yet. When I know the next immediate outcome – and – am ready to speak of it, I will update all of you loyal readers of my blogs about the situation. For now I am just beginning to have enough ease to make a beginning to get back to my normal routines; personal and professional.

Still I was far from idle these past two months, since just after July 4th when I declared a sabbatical for myself. Consequently in the midst of my time of ordeal, challenge and retreat, I managed, with the collaboration of my New Horizons Board of Directors, to birth our VERY exciting next project.

By way of catching up, you with me and me with you, take a look at what we have been creating. 

So here I am, now again, ready, maybe a bit slower than usual, to reach out to all of you, starting to write here once more. 

Look forward, as usual, to my having many stories to share; some about my philosophies of living and facing life and its many tests and adventures, others more directly or indirectly related to New Horizons, the non-profit organization I founded and presently direct.

To get us back, once more, in the swing of things, here is a sampling of what I/we have been creating by "order of the board" while I was on my “time off,” ho ho!

• Making Violence Obsolete: New Horizons’ Next Amazing Project (August 9);
• Make Violence Obsolete! (August 15);
• Community Gathering To Introduce “Making Violence Obsolete” Principles (August 22);
• Truly Beaut-i-full And Impactful! (August 30).

Not bad, eh, for a "productive" sick leave. Ho ho. The creative process helped keep me sane and hopeful during my time out. So celebrate what came of it with me, if you don't mind.

Thanks!

(It may not surprise you that with this mode of a time-out for me that I was also running one of my earlier entrepreneurial enterprises part of the time that I was in labor with my son.  Please know, however, that I am now a long way from THAT level of work compulsion.)

Have a nice Labor Day weekend.

The Appeal of “Stronger Together” --

--- broke through my fear, despair and confusion.

I'd been in a slump for months; emotionally exhausted/burned out, a distressing place I'd not experienced before that I can remember.

First off an eye emergency crisis broke out for me in late March. (Last week, after five months with that crisis, surgery started to move the situation onto a healing path that I hope will mark improvement.) Also, during this same time I had gotten myself into a pattern of overworking; somewhat survival-driven which is unlike my norm. 

But overshadowing these, by the time the Democratic National Convention came full circle, I was realizing that for months I'd been functioning under a dark cloud of massive fear and despair. Never before had I ever viewed my privilege of being American-born this way.

Donald Trump was the source!

Previously, America had always been "the home of the free and the brave" for me. Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and the words of Emma Lazarus, 

"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” 

had been emblazoned on my heart and soul. The America I loved had been the port of salvation, welcoming my immigrant grandparents to its shores, the protecting haven that made a safe, new home for them as they fled their European oppressors.

But over the past months of this year, as the presidential election campaign revved up, I felt this haven being torn apart.

In the depths of my psyche I began to fear a new Hitler, personified by Donald Trump, coming to power in the United States; the potential for increasing divisiveness, hatred and racism barking at our doors. As Donald Trump's favoritism soared, I was growing more and frightened to the very core of my being.

And then, too, Hillary had not been an enviable choice either for the highest leadership position in the land. Many a grudge did I carry regarding her, especially for her denigration of other women, personified most deliberately in the fall of Monica Lewinsky, by virtue or lack thereof, in Lewinsky’s involvement with Bill Clinton. Not unlike that of Camille Cosby, another woman in similar circumstances that I have had difficulty respecting.

Terrorist attacks, police brutality of African-American men and then the retaliation against the police rounded off my fear and despair.

There seemed no place to turn; the demise of America as I knew it was coming. And just as with my eye crisis I felt helpless to affect circumstances while a darkness I'd never known before swept over each day, worsening them as they proceeded forward toward their culmination in the coming November election; a zenith of that darkness and perhaps the apex of a growing deterioration of the America I loved!

Certainly a worsening of circumstances was in the offing as I viewed them.

But then came the Democratic National Convention, following on the heels of Donald Trump’s doom and gloom views of America at the Republican National Convention.  And, at last, I saw daylight in the midst! 

Hillary’s campaign slogan, “Stronger Together,” reinforced a belief I had long held, as in – “It takes a village.” The people of America had been “stronger together” for centuries and we would be still.

Even under the faux leadership of such as Donald Trump this nation of “compassionate warriors” cannot be defeated. We can pull together for that which democracy has stood since it’s official beginnings, “Love trumps hate.”

The Appeal of “Stronger Together” and it’s congruence with what I viewed in the demeanor of speakers at the Democratic National Convention had broken through my fear, despair and confusion.

Once again, though now a registered Independent, I would vote Democrat and feel good about my choice!