As It Was In The Beginning (of 2019) So It Is In The End (More Or Less)…

… but for the AWAKENING in me of heightened consciousness, resilient strength, self-confidence in the face of opposition and an enhanced capability to not allow the less than respectful behavior of others to disarm me, even hold me emotionally and spiritually hostage. 

No to the latter, including U.S, politics, holding me hostage – and – a huge, resounding YES to my new, hard-won liberation!

Join me in New Horizons/Small “Zones of Peace” Truth Or Dare Movement and its various endeavors – and – I’ll show you the way to reach these heights too, with a commitment to truth-telling and respectful truth-listening as your cornerstone!

Speaking truth to power, thoroughly and with dignity, has given this to me! 

So much so that I felt, all through 2019, as if I was flying on the wings of an eagle whose main vocation was to help lift and transport me as high in the sky, crossing mountains, rivers and valleys, as I would wish to go, at least in my mind, no matter how rough the ride (and it has indeed been a challenging year, including two emergency eye surgeries (October 19 and November 21) and an auto accident in March that totaled the car I was driving though I was essentially uninjured). 

My awakening was ushered in just as last year, 2018, was flowing into 2019 when I found myself with cause to celebrate, having secured a hard-won victory by means many might have thought irregular, even futile!  Yet here I was soaring!

Of course, I cannot constantly sustain this state but I am well on my way to a new way of being in my life. I can see and feel  it all around me, as well as inside me, an awareness of the awesome heights my mind can reach to see beyond the darkness in people who seem not to care about the well-being and dignity of others. 

In this I find liberation, corresponding to an unwillingness to yield to the captivity of others misdeeds, and the means to give the best of myself wherever I might be needed. Completing a horrendous ordeal with the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA) regarding an ethics complaint against Marty Groder is where 2019 began for me. 

However, it is in the harvesting of the fruits of that labor, my heightened clarity and the skillfulness that I found myself delighted to experience as 2019 ended. 

You can read some of my story on this transforming adventure of mine in this piece, Trump’s Impeachment Has Brought Me Such Peace.  How About You? The whole of it will, however, need to wait for its telling when it has "composted" enough inside of me to be able to share it for benefit.

In the immediate time at hand, I felt the richness of what I had achieved from 2018 through 2019 the other evening when, on the heels of the formal impeachment of Donald Trump, I experienced a peacefulness come over me, allowing me to stand outside the chaos of the drama that has taken over our Congress. I could be calm inside myself, believing that some people, both Democrats and the GOP would play by the rules. 

Solutions to upheaval Trump has fostered can now emerge with a modicum of order and what has been ordained by our Constitution could be attained and sustained. It seems unlikely Trump will be removed from office, nonetheless, he has been indicted through the Articles of Impeachment, with the Democrats now using the best tools granted them by their Constitutional rights to speak to the power of the presidential office, backed up by the forces of the other two governing bodies established, Congress and the courts.

The real. true highest GAME in our land is on you, Mr. President!

I look forward to discussing the ascending levels of discourse of the Congressional game and how they are similar to what happens in a New Horizons Truth Or Dare GAME, in greater detail in the future. You will find this to be enlightening once I am able to lay them out clearly for readers which will be no small endeavor. Our GAME, you will discover, is close to the same, essentially the same, as has been lived out, recently, in the House of Representatives, under the astute leadership of Nancy Pelosi.  

If you like enjoy the drama and intrigue of the Congressional-White House game, you ought to really enjoy ours! Soon you will be able bring our GAME home to your living room, especially as we are now playing it more and more of it by conference call.

More on this later. Look for my discussion on the Exploring Your Dark Side: The Adventure of a Lifetime blog site.

Jumping to the endings of such "games," the consistent outcome is that sometimes indictees get punished with consequences. Sometimes they get off. No matter how things turn out, once indicted a person's reputation and regard by others is never again the same.

Speaking truth to power has done its job!

With the Articles Of Impeachment against Donald J. Trump now in place, I findd myself, rather than being upset by the outrageous and dangerous actions of our president and his allies, able to watch what I consider to be lies and corruption, power abuse games running rampant, knowing that I can stand apart from the force field Mr. Trump creates.

I choose serenity over chaos, regardless of what others do. And I know I can sustain it. The law-defining rules are in place.

The unrelenting efforts of House Democrats bought that, a Constitutionally-ordained foundation for moving through the chaos of Trump and Company, for our government -- and for the people of our nation. 

I trust this process, if nothing else in our political culture.

Now I want to pass whatever I have and can on to you! 

Truth Or Dare: The Movement is my vehicle. 

The GAME is my training ground, intent on teaching all who would join us how to drive well! in life!

Blindness and Politics: Body, Mind And Spirit

Bill Clinton lied about Monica Lewinsky -- and -- I went blind! 

Donald Trump with his disregard for ethics, lying again and again, way beyond the norm even for a politician, like Clinton, is now in the process of being impeached.  

And here I am again, blind! 

Fortunately, only in my right eye this time.

Richard Nixon lied about the Watergate break-in, among other things. 

Coincidentally the day before he resigned I was gifted with renewed sight by virtue of a cornea transplant, that served me well for twenty-five years --

-- UNTIL BILL CLINTON LIED ABOUT MONICA!

(The day before Nixon gave up his presidential office, immediately following my cornea transplant, a prophecy came to me, guiding my life ever since to make sense, specifically, of such happenings, the dark side of society and politics, lying and corruption especially. )   

Note: That is the same eye that has now been irretrievably lost.

Isn’t that weird? 


Three presidents lying to the American people, extensively enough to warrant impeachment proceedings -- and -- side by side,  three major, life-changing eye crises for me, a person whose entire adult life has been played out, with much emotional content having to do with Washington politics, business and social networks.

These coinciding incidents might actually somehow be connected in the realm of universal laws, in the soul/psyche of a person, me in this instance? 

But how and why, in the greater scheme of things? Who can know for sure?

However, having lived the many adventures of my life, 24/7, I know the back story. So, in a manner of speaking, the connections make sense to me.

My story is an amazing tale, especially in its entirety when the extent of body, mind and spirit entwining are included. 

I’m ready now for the telling that almost no one has been privy to yet. 

You are sure to find it entertaining, maybe even enlightening, particularly if respecting the interconnectedness of body, mind and spirit holds water for you. 

Even more so, if our present socio-political situation is eating at you, as it has been me.

We at New Horizons/Small “Zones Of Peace are preparing now for the telling, coming soon, in bits and pieces on both Anastasia The Storyteller Radio and The Possible Society In Motion Radio, each with its own unique emphasis.

I think the core of the message I wish to drive home is that it is a devotion to ethics and common decency, including truth-telling and truth-listening, where respect for each and every person is upheld, that is the heart of good, healthy living. This perspective makes sense, deriving from every religious, esoteric and practical philosophy of higher consciousness.

So why is it not so popular, across the board in our country, free as we are, and in our Congress and in the Administrative Office of the President that leads our nation?

Why, at this point in time, in the evolution of humanity, is it not agreed upon that the only safe bet for our nation, long-term, is reliant on these ethics and values?

Why is the search for the highest truth attainable, not overriding partisanship and polarization?

Having trekked the life path I’ve followed, I’ve discovered the critical importance of knowing and acting upon the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, especially for solving problems.

New Horizons Truth or Dare GAME, in motion, demonstrates this like nothing else I know.

Adept at truth-telling and truth-hearing and having discovered the rewards, starting off with what Watergate taught me, and with more than forty years experience leading and participating in the GAME, the ultimate truth-lovers process. I can't help but ask myself, 

“What is this craziness, this lying, denying and corruption, held to as though one’s life depends on it, this refusal to do fact-based conflict resolution that I see before my eyes when I turn to internet reports of the happenings now going on in Congress, the White House and other arms of the government and the media?” 

I ask this of myself partially because I’m trying to understand how the stress of it all, in this era of Trump, reached such a peak for me personally, combined with my lifetime of battling keratoconus, a cone shaped disease of the cornea, to the point that I literally, albeit unconsciously, blinded myself, unaware that my stress and distress in this time of Trump, was paralleling what I did in the Clinton-Lewinsky situation, turning my angst into distress I expressed somatically. 

The human body, mind and spirit intertwined can do this.

Nonetheless, please do not become fretful for me, in hearing of the loss of my eye. 

From where I stand, having come through my surgeries and being quite well on the way to a wonderful healing, I am grateful, not remorseful for my loss is already bringing me gains – in health, quality of life – and – in what might surprise you, in my capacity to SEE beyond the ordinary into greater than before visionary capacities.

I rejoice in this! 

I have traded in a diseased eye that had been producing one crisis after another for more than ten years. 

Now I can, without the distractions of that burden, get on with the business of SEEING from my third eye, the one that brings me closer and closer to Divine reasoning and the wondrous wisdom this connection accrues.

Still here it is, then, right in the midst of the impeachment process against Donald Trump; my poor, dear right eye has taken its last breath and melted away. 

Apparently political chaos can evoke an extreme physical response such as this in me, as, obviously, this is not the first time my right eye, seemingly with a mind of its own, has reacted to presidential malfeasance in this way. “Celebrating” Bill Clinton’s lying about Monica Lewinsky I responded similarly by completely shutting down, shutting out the world beyond me for eight long years, at least visually.

Weird you say? Craziness to think such thoughts?

However, if my situation is compared to that of others, someone else out there in these United States might, instead of loss of eyesight (although in my case, definitely, not loss of VISION), is having a heart attack or high blood pressure over our politics, as well as our societal problems that run across the board, touching so very many people and areas of life. 

That’s how stress can manifest. Originating with our innate survival response, based in the reptilian brain, we humans often react to distress in this way, developing physical symptoms, a form of “acting in,” when other healthier alternatives seem out of reach.

Alternatively, some choose “acting out,” escalating racism and violence.

In my case it was my right eye that reacted, literally melting away, all on its own as nurses and doctors prepared me for my second emergency eye surgery in barely more than a month.

Be that as it may, underneath the sturm und drang of our present socio-political chaos, what is it that can hurt someone enough to generate a physical crisis such as mine? 

What lies at the heart of it? 

For truly it is the heart, literally, metaphorically, body, mind and spirit that is reacting in this way.

It hurt our U.S. citizens to their very core, watching the Watergate scandal unfold, in a way that remains with us today. Bill Clinton’s deceptiveness was infuriating, on the other hand. With a somewhat lesser degree of tragedy, in my opinion.

Why I think this, just now as I write this piece, warrants further consideration on my part. 

Still I was already so totally immersed in writing my Random House Trilogy (1988 – 1998), intent on explaining what it was that Watergate had taught me – and – how New Horizons and myself might be able to offset similar situations, at least on a business and/or personal level, that I had not quite experienced the pain in Clinton’s case. 

In our present circumstances, those of us who are not pro-Trump saw impeachment as a potential looming from the start that very morning after the 2016 election had culminated on election night, discovering Hillary to be the loser, Trump the winner, in the presidential race.

Impeachment was always on the table once Trump, the reality television president and Company took over the White House. Clinton not so much though he did bring his share of scandals, including the Whitewater and Paula Jones controversies.

Now here it is, the impeaching of Donald Trump. 

The U.S. House of Representatives has moved forward with its impeachment investigation into actual Articles of Impeachment to be voted on next week. And I am crying at times – for our country and those who are being dragged through the mud in this drama. 

Digging down deep through the many layers of that which disturbs me, I find grief. The grief in my heart, perhaps like your own, makes its way to the surface as my eyes burn with unshed tears.  

But, as the Christmas song, “The Little Drummer Boy,” asks “Do you see what I see?” 

While impeachment is not a time for rejoicing, lending, instead, a somber tone to these closing days 2019, as we head into the Christmas, Chanukah, Winter Solstice, Hadj season, there is a grander perspective of what is now happening on the earth plane, if you get high enough in your consciousness to SEE that all is well – on earth as it is in heaven.

Update: On Anastasia’s Healing and Happiness

I'm healing, home and happy!!  My BFF, Sue at whose home I’ve been staying these past weeks following my HUGE, life-changing eye surgery, brought me home yesterday afternoon.

We loaded and fired up the wood stove, bought groceries, changed the sheets on my bed and prepared a good meal for me before I snuggled up in it with a good book.

I'm good!

Ready to start writing my next blog articles.

If I'm writing, you can be sure I'm doing good.
Might I even be able to make my yearly quota – at least 52 blogs?
We’ll see.

P..S. choosing to have my right eye surgically removed, at this juncture, was one of my  best decisions ever.

Lots of stories here! More later.

Anastasia with love and gratitude, especially for my team of doctors at Johns Hopkins, overflowing.  Had it not been for their dedication, even doing emergency surgery on me (November 19) in the middle of the night, I was in danger even of dying!

As Truth Be Told, It's The Distress Of American Politics That Has Blinded Me!!

And my prayers and determination to help make things better that propels me forward.

Now how do I make this seeming oddity of myself, reoccurring blindness crises directly connected to surrounding circumstances, sound reasonable?

The crisis of "to see or not to see." 

It looms, dramatically, in front of us and all around, if only we would notice it for what it is and take steps to move beyond the denial of things good and healthy, while allowing darkness to envelop our daily lives!

I know I'm not the only one to be so upset, body, mind and spirit, that severe repercussions are resulting.

Here's my version.

I hope my story will invite yours too because we must get ourselves out of this swamp/quicksand Donald Trump is making of our country with his dark side politics of lies and corruption.

Sharing our stories can help us unite and move past the pain we create for ourselves and others by allowing our differences to become insurmountable obstacles to our innate Human Oneness.

Storytelling is one vitally important way to begin so I offer my own.

Yet I write this with trepidation, reminding myself, as an aside, that Thanksgiving is coming fast on the morrow, so gratitude, too, must also be with me – and – it is.

My various apprehensions arise out of my intention, here, to speak of things that touch so definitively on the emotional and spiritually abstract that I seriously doubt my abilities to truly convey what I wish.

The gratitude, of course, is that I seem to be coming through my eye ordeal successfully.

Overall, however, I am weak and shaky these days. But the initial, excruciating pain in my head and the nausea are gone as physical healing and strength rebuilding start to kick in. Yet truth be told there's a great deal more to this eye crisis of mine, the surgical removal of my right eye, than a purely physical health emergency.

The current politics of the U.S.A. is what this recent blindness episode is truly about for me. Our politics are not merely about laws and legalities, people and personalities are active elements here too. They embody emotions and whole personhoods that also are in play.

My eyesight crisis, at this juncture, illustrates this.

I am in pain, body, mind and spirit. Might you be also?

I want you to know what this anguish is wholly about for me, as the significance of my eye crisis emerges, most directly, out of our present political crisis, through to me and then out to you. You, too, cycle through this pattern alongside me, keeping the distress in motion.

Though, on a personal level, my eye crisis is a certain major game changer for me, sharing my story of it is essential too.But how to truly explain it, as I know it, daunts me.

The center of it is that:

My right eye, the one just removed, has been rather a magical eye and in its new form will continue to be, I am certain.

This I know. But how for me to tell you of what is spiritual coupled with the physical, this I do not know. Speaking of the spiritual, especially on the internet is not easily done.

What I’m trying to get across, what I mean by this is that there is every evidence that my right eye can and has predictably demonstrated, over many decades, a unique relationship to psychic abilities I have developed throughout the course of my life that manifest in my skill as a relationship and community development consultant and coach, abilities of mine that are products of stress and distress surmounted or healed

Isn't that amazing?

Can you believe it?

The alchemical conjuring by the whole apparatus that has been my right eye comes of it reacting dramatically, in a very unique way, to certain specific kinds of stressors in my life by going on strike, by cutting off my ability to receive external, earth plane input through it while simultaneously opening my consciousness to taking in  otherworldly data.

The combining of this psychic ability in me with my many years of rock solid skills and experience is what I am most about, added, of course, to my being a truly fine person in the manner Murat guided me to be.

So there, I've said it now!

Can you believe it?

Take it at face value, what I've just stated above?

Discovering this phenomenon in myself has been quite unnerving at times. Thus my consciousness of the dynamic as it was living itself out became a traditional "gradual awakening," a growing awareness, based on cumulative experience and knowledge.

But, oh my goodness! How very strange it has been to accept that my body, with my right eye as the messenger channels information of Divine origins.

So slowly did I "get it" that, at first, I could barely accept the possibility/reality of what my experiences were holding up before me.

Only with a medically-backed perspective did I even begin to trust that scientific data could be at hand to explain some fairly weird eye crisis patterns in me. At a 1978 Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute appointment, the ophthalmologist diagnosed a series of problems I was having at that time as attributable to a conversion hysteria reaction, hysterical blindness, a major body-mind-spirit stress reaction!

With that event providing the portal, over time I began to accept, with increasing assurance that, indeed, intermittent eye crises, blindness episodes that happened for me repeatedly, many times, over time, were no accident, not isolated incidents, but occurring within a context.

As truth be told, this is the magical tale I wish to speak of now and in the immediate future.

It leads me directly into defining and describing the underpinnings of the newly developing future on hand for New Horizons and myself – and – you too, if you choose to allow your better self to make a direct connection to New Horizons Truth Or Dare Movement: Destination Capitol Hill.

I hope you will want to know of my story as its implications for the necessary healing from what lies ahead for us are noteworthy, as Americans at this time, on a very turbulent path as we usher in 2020.

Right now many of us are in various kinds of anguish over what is happening to our country. But ahead, “G-d willing and the creek don’t rise,” healing is what we will need.

And healing is what we can find, if we are willing to come together and be "united states."

My story is a juicy one. In its depths lie seeds of how we might proceed with this agenda

The challenge is how, especially on the internet my story/stories can be drawn from me with the richness they merit via the internet, enough to invite yours.

We will just need to see how to do it.

Next I will want to share with you the deciphering of the mystery of my recent past ninety days for the illumination they have to offer – the teachable lessons.

But this will give you only a work unfolding, in progress, with more to be excavated, gold to be mined.

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving with hopes for even more joyful ones ahead.

Shocking News At New Horizons

FYI

Thursday, November 21, 2019, 2 p.m., 
Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute Vandann Surgerical Facility
Baltimore, Maryland

Anastasia Rosen-Jones, Beloved Executive Director, New Horizons Support Network, Inc. underwent emergency surgical removal of her damaged right eye today. She is recovering quietly and well at this time and will be cutting back her work hours significantly through the end of the year. 

With the love and support of our entire New Horizons Board of Directors – and --- her many friends and supporters, we anticipate Anastasia's being renewed and recovered in the new year.

Look for future details to find out how you, too, can support Anastasia during this challenging time.

How I Put What Matters To Me Into Motion

6:00 p.m.

All but done with this high pressured day, Part II: Reflections On Why Truth Matters To Me

New Horizons Board Member, Lynn Cullather, and I got into a discussion yesterday on the subject of what is pushing me to carry this plan, originating with me, forward, the Truth Or Dare Movement: Destination Capitol Hill.

Lynn wondered if what I am after is changing the world. 

Not hardly, said I! 

“No such gigantic dream like that for me,” I asserted, as I went on to share what I thought motivates me.

Here are a few of my perspectives on the matter.

• For me truth-seeking, truth-telling and truth-listening bring order out of chaos, peace out of disruption.  That makes them of the highest order, as the alternative is no option at all.

Take a look at how important Congress is making truth-telling or not as a value.

• With this in mind, I realize that I have, along with the strong foundations upon which our organization operates, the expertise, skills and tools to, at least, offer to contribute what I/we can to the social and political chaos proliferating throughout our country through the package of what our Truth Or Dare Movement can provide, once up and fully operational.

I know, as the original architect of our movement, that of which it is comprised, not only makes my life work remarkably well, but that these elements have also made an important contribution to enhancing the lives of hundreds, possibly thousands of others over the past forty-five years of service.  

We have even saved a good hand full of lives in those years.

Our Truth Or Dare GAME has been at the forefront of these gains. 

So why not, at least, make our best effort to offer what we have that has been tried and found true, with the hope of improvement where there is upset, Capitol Hill among other places, with lies, perceived or actual, being the cornerstone of greatest importance at this time.

Again the words of Charles Krauthammer ring in my ears.

You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think – and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.

• We are after accomplishing the giving of what we have, in full measure, to the best of our abilities, believing that our Truth Or Dare Movement might, minimally, make a small dent by, at least, furthering discussions on the topic of truth. If meaningful conversation is all we accomplish, it might just be something to prime the fire, something that might impact, later if not sooner.

So it is our obligation to take up this task.

Another truth proclaimed in the Jewish High Holiday prayers suggests that it is asked of us, if we are to be the best of ourselves that –

“We must begin with ourselves, but not end with ourselves.”

• Again New Horizons Truth Or Dare Movement can be an enhanced pathway for doing this, which is why at this time, we are doing everything we can to boost Truth Or Dare capabilities in each and every one of our board members, for starters.  In time, hopefully, these board members will be able to carry our brand of skillfulness out to others in ways that will make a difference.

In fact, among our board members we are already seeing evidence of this from the fruits of our efforts in big and small ways, now that our revitalized Truth Or Dare GAME and its associated GAME community passed its one year anniversary date just last week.

Enough said for today. And just enough to get my remaining four blog posts up before midnight.

Reflections On Why Truth Matters To Me

Along with struggling to, as simply as possible, meet my monthly blog posting quota on this final day of the month, I struggle more than I might ordinarily, as I continue day-after-day this past month, to be "Caught up In Sixes And Sevens.”

On this day -- feeling especially stressed, as I find myself torn between my earthly obligations and those of a higher plane, my Jewish heritage in particular adding to my pressures -- I decide to allow the unfolding day to show me the way through it, rather than me taking control, as best as a human can, to direct the day’s outcome. 

With this commitment, I stayed on this path devotedly, making it an intrinsic part of the very private Rosh Hoshana practice I had created for myself, until 2 p.m. today.

The following are my journaled entries of this day, divided into two parts with the addition of a second article to follow on this theme, coinciding with the idea of there being a Rosh Hoshana Morning Service and an added, later-in-the-day service called Musaf.

Below and also in part two of this themed discussion, are my running commentaries as I attempt to be a “good Jew” and a conscientious blog writer too.

7 a.m.

I wake up early. My first thoughts go directly to four main things: 1. Today is the last day of the month; 2. I still need to write four blog articles before midnight tonight, 3.  It is Rosh Hoshana, the beginning of the Jewish New Year, also called the Ten Days of Repentance or the Ten Days of Awe; and 4. It is my obligation, as a child of my heritage, a Jewish woman, to spend my day in prayer today.

Obviously I must now resolve the dilemma presented here of how I can manage this deadline, in the era of the internet, and be a “good Jew? 

7:20 a.m. 

I decide to put my looming deadlines aside and focus instead on the demands of the holiday, quietly hoping that perhaps the magic and mystery of lifelong, familiar rituals and practices will bring insight with them before my final writing deadline at midnight.

Relieved of immediate pressures, I check in on the news, coming across an interesting article in the Washington Post, by Alia Dastagir titled “It’s been two years since the MeToo movement exploded. Now What?” 

I am drawn into it, especially as it is written in a contemplative style, corresponding to the one in my head.  

In the article the author makes reference to the words of another whose name I have neglected to register. (But will note when I do.) 

Simple words, similar to ones I've expressed myself, reflecting one more of the reasons truth matters. It's the end of the  secrets, their polar opposite.

“It's the secrets that burden you. It's the hiding that burdens you," she said.”

“Yum, I tell myself. 

“There is resonance all around me today. See it’s working – this let go, let G-d pathway I’m choosing for myself today. 

Somehow I'm "doing" Rosh Hoshanah and my writing tasks too, without doing the latter at all.”

8:15 a.m.

I feel prompted to search out astrology predictions on Donald Trump and read a few.

What am I seeking here, I wonder. 

Some kind of alternate reality truth-seeking when, consciously, I am trying to get ready for the holiday?

8:30 a.m.

My mind turns to Rosh Hoshanah, the prayers and rituals established eons ago for this day of a Jew's reflections of the highest order, focused mainly on one's relationship to G-d.

I ask myself what is different about today, for me, from the usual? 

I learned to put myself wholeheartedly into my relationship with Great Mystery, which is not exactly what they call "IT" in the synagogue, the very moment I knew I had lost my eyesight, Labor Day weekend, 1998. 

It was the most sensible thing I could figure out to do at the time. Is there something else I should be doing now? 

My very survival of that ordeal could not have been achieved had I done otherwise, I remind myself. 

Is there a connection, I wonder, that links my survival with “why truth matters?” I ask myself.

Apparently I am still trying to work out my blog writing challenges on my chosen topic, why truth matters to me, as I lean in to Rosh Hoshanah.

9 a.m.  

Rain starts pouring down and my mind shifts to reflecting on the magic and mystery of rain.

I am especially grateful for rain these days. The contrast between last year's flooding and the extensive damages it wrought has shifted, this year, to near drought conditions.

Dependent on our well for water that has shown recent evidence of depletion, I am rejoicing at the abundance of the downpour, anticipating its washing over and nourishing the lingering remnants of my summer garden.

10 a.m. 

I check in again with the Washington Post, finding a beautifully written article, “On Rosh Hashanah, A Note Blown On This Ram’s Horn Will Echo All The Way From Auschwitz" by Chaim Steinmetz. 

The piece centers on the tale of a ram’s horn, called the shofar in Jewish tradition.

Steinmetz writes,

“In synagogues around the country, Jews will gather on Monday for Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday. …. A central element during prayer services will be a few simple notes blown on a shofar, a musical instrument fashioned from a ram’s horn and used since ancient times."

The story of this particular shofar which had been cautiously hidden in the death camp is poignant (You can read the entirety here.). Steinmetz continues – 

It would have taken enormous courage for those men to risk their lives by blowing the shofar. Such an act of faith during the war was hardly an isolated episode. A multitude of testimonies describe Jews making steep sacrifices to retain their religious and spiritual identity in the concentration camps. 

This, Steinmetz points out gives testimony to the strength that comes of faith and a dedication to higher "truths" than ordinary earth plane perspectives.

There it is again -- why truth matters.

10:30 a.m.

I do my daily "Morning Joe" check in call tol)ll)FF Sue.

Isabel, our Hood College Truth Or Dare Movement coordinator, and I text back and forth, eventually getting around to canceling our weekly meeting scheduled for today, as she has not been been feeling well.

I think this is just as well on my end. 

I would have needed to take a break from my prayer plans so rescheduling suits me today although I was really looking forward to that meeting that would have updated New Horizons Board and myself on the progress being made at Hood. 

11 a.m.

I situate myself on my living room couch, High Holiday prayer book in hand, readied, at last, to formally begin reading Rosh Hoshana prayers for day one of the Jewish New Year.

I make my start by lighting the ritual candles prior to my reading, taking the liberty to light them at a totally inappropriate time, according to tradition.

I allow myself not to care about "ordained time," choosing instead to honor my personal truth that these candles bring comfort to me at my chosen hour. This is good enough, according to "the G-d of my understanding" who is not all caught up on absolute form, instead respecting that it's the thought that counts.

11:30 a.m.

I turn again to the internet. This time to check out blessings for the holiday. I particularly am drawn to this one, the Shehecheyonu that offers the following prayer.

In Hebrew: Bo-ruch a-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu me-lech ho-olom she-he-che-ya-nu vi-kee-yi-ma-nu vi-hi-gee-an-u liz-man ha-zeh.

Translation: Blessed are you, L-rd our G d, King of the universe, who has kept us alive and sustained us and let us reach this time

1:00 p.m.

Reading through my holiday prayer book I feel a surge of beauty, a purity of Light energy is surrounding this time of prayer for me.

One passage particularly impacts me --

"It is the greatness of our tradition that ideas derived from our forefathers can teach all generations truths of universal validity, as we...."confront age-old questions.

Followed by these words -- 

"Live with integrity, do what is right, speak the truth without deceit"

Ah ha. This is what it’s about – why truth matters to me!

The answer is very much alive in the ancient teachings of those Beloved ones who went before me, the ancestors of my Jewish heritage.

Added comfort arises as I reflect that these words and ideas are as true of the Christian Bible as they are of the Jewish, corresponding also to Muslim teachings and faith.

2:00 p.m.

I conclude my prayer time, not having written a word to meet my blog demands. 

However, even without effort I have kept myself true to the demands on me for the day while simultaneously, semi-consciously reflecting “On Why Truth Matters To Me,” as I immersed myself in Rosh Hoshanah celebration. 

Nothing wrong about that.

Now without even trying I am able to conjure up blog writing ideas, gleaned from holiday prayers, and move my day forward into accommodating that deadline of mine. 

Words from a favorite journalist, now deceased, Charles Krauthammer crystallize my thoughts further – 

“You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think…” 

After a half-day spent in ritual contemplation, without writing a word, Rosh Hoshanah has brought me to understand what I probably needed most today, a lesson on“Why Truth Matters To Me.”

Conclusion: 

• I have a passion for truth, a passion I must have developed in lHebrew and Sunday School  -- and -- even more at the knees of my grown-ups, especially from my father's role modeling and the prayers of the Jewish High Holidays. 

How about that!!  That's probably how I got to be just how I am, a woman with a passion for truth. 

Your passion might be football. So be it!

Part I concludes. More to come.

Anastasia's Prophecy Summarized, The Story Behind New Horizons Truth Or Dare Movement

You can read an excerpted summary of my prophecy (or how Anastasia became a Super Sleuth) below with additional comments here and here (though not yet quite clearly described on either of these). 

Anastasia's Prophecy: August 7, 1974

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. 

The definition fits with what occurred for me on August 7, 1974, the day before Nixon resigned his presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal. The evidence of what this phenomenon brought into my life is what has happened since.

Update, August 11, 2020, today, right now in this present moment, the manifestation of the prophecy, in terms of its instructions for me, is occurring, along with almost magical aspects.

Yippee! I couldn't be happier. I am turning cartwheels happy!!

My Prophecy had two major instructions: 

Instruction One

I was instructed to go forth on an adventure that would guide me to research, understand and develop the skill to transform the Dark Side of Washington society and politics by finding answers to two main questions

Check out Anastasia,
The Super Sleuth
Coaching & Consulting 

Question #1:

How could the President of the United States of America, in good conscience, lie to the American people?

Question #2:

How could so many people believe this lying president, seem to, or simply not care if he/she lied?

Instruction Two

I was directed to someday return to the heart of Washington with the knowledge I would have obtained in answering those twos questions -- and the expertise to put it all to use  to help this country, beginning with Washington society and politics.

My prophecy, as I understand it today, was a “call to adventure”  -- my adventure of a lifetime. 

I have followed the instructions meticulously.

And the time for my return turns out to be NOW!

Caught Up In Sixes and Sevens

Another tale in the continuing saga of what it means for Anastasia to be a Compassionate Warrior Woman (and New Horizons Truth Or Dare Poster Girl), taking on Capitol Hill.

Under construction

It’s two weeks, as of today, since the New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project officially launched its new initiative, the Truth Or Dare Movement, at the Hood College Community Volunteer And Internship Fair.

I am greatly rewarded by what was accomplished in terms of the event helping us move various key objectives of our budding movement forward.

Yet I had hoped, by this time afterward, I would have found more of a point of clarity, personally, and would feel settled and focused on next steps for myself, as well as for New Horizons. Based on the inroads opening to us from Hood, a giant step of forward motion on our Truth Or Dare mission is already being taken. 

Anticipating multiple other college campus cultures becoming ultimately involved, perhaps as soon as next year, you’d think I’d be celebrating our progress, though only one step so far. Unfortunately, something seems to be holding me down energetically, emotionally and spiritually. 

So far, over the past few weeks, my daily nutrition and stationary bike riding routines have sustained their momentum. 

Yet, overall, disciplining myself, as I usually do: drawing from a complete menu of daily practices to help me do whatever it takes to keep myself on my optimum high road – body, mind and spirit, I have been unable to reach the lift for which I routinely aim. 

From a New Horizons perspective, it seems all is well, progressing as intended: We have properly and successfully presented ourselves at the fair, been rewarded with enthusiastic responses from students and are now, already, in the process of developing our first Truth Or Dare Movement pilot project at Hood College. 

Headed by a vibrant student coordinator named Isabel who is all an organization such as ours could want, our Hood project is almost as good as it can get at this stage. If I won’t be called foolish, I might say of Isabel and “her people” what Murat once said of me, “I might turn cartwheels over how much joy and inspiration Isabel is” herself and for her regular reports on the forward motion of New Horizons Truth Or Dare Movement at Hood College.

Still, here I sit accumulating many hours on this day, doing little else other than writing and re-writing, reading and re-reading my few words, sentences and paragraphs for this relatively short article, feeling lost and confused, a bit like Alice in Wonderland, barely able to put one foot in front of the other with any certainty. 

On a day like today when I am counting down to the end of the month, still with seven blogs needing to be written and published in order to fulfill my monthly commitment of one per week for each of the two main New Horizons sponsored blog sites, this one and the Small “Zones Of Peace” Project site, I am not even having a little fun, much less actual celebrating.

Ordinarily I can -- with the aid of morning meditations that I call my "conversations with G-d," immersing myself in one writing project or another, gardening in my top deck container garden, healthy eating, exercise and connecting with friends -- establish a sense of myself as a co-creator with a Higher Source. 

Once at this level, I can, often without too much trouble – though some mornings are more difficult than others – feel myself slipping into the stream of my life with relative ease.

Not quite there yet for me this round however.

Instead of my being in a meaningful flow from inside myself into the outer world around me I feel jumbled up – and – lost. Betwixt and between, at sixes and sevens, nowhere and everywhere all at the same time.

But wait!! Do not despair, should you be doing so on my behalf!

I may be struggling to feel healthy, happy and celebratory these days, however I can, at least, explain - in fits and starts -- the how, the why and the what of this malaise that has taken me over.

Here an is an introduction, offered to both of us, attempting to explain the turbulence I'm presently experiencing -- an identity crisis of the highest order might be one way of describing it! 

• I am birthing a resurrected me – true to my name Anastasia, meaning she who rises again;
• I am birthing the return cycle of my prophecy (read summary excerpt below);
• I am experiencing a Shaman’s death cycle event!
• I am transforming, going through multiple moments of ego death and rebirth, brought about, at this moment, by –

My heading, full face to the wind, right here and now, after forty-five long, adventurous years, into the final stages of my carrying forth the instructions of my prophecy, a clearly spoken directive that came to me, from where I do not know, on the day before Richard Nixon resigned as President of the U.S.A..!

YAHOO!!!

You can read an excerpted summary of my prophecy below with additional comments here and here (though not yet quite clearly described). 

Anastasia's Prophecy: August 7, 1974

The day before Nixon resigned as President of the United States of America, due to his culpability in the Watergate break-in scandal.

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 definition fits with what occurred for me on August 7, 1974, the day before Nixon resigned his presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal. The evidence of what this phenomenon brought into my life is what has happened since.

My Prophecy had two major instructions: 

Instruction One

I was instructed to go forth on an adventure that would guide me to research, understand and develop the skill to transform the Dark Side of Washington society and politics by finding answers to two main questions

Question #1:
How could the President of the United States of America, in good conscience, lie to the American people?

Question #2:
How could so many people believe this lying president, seem to, or simply not care if he/she lied?

Instruction Two

Someday I was directed to return to the heart of Washington with the knowledge I would have obtained in answering those twos questions -- and the expertise to put it all to use  to help this country, beginning with Washington society and politics.

My prophecy, as I understand it today, was a “call to adventure”  -- my adventure of a lifetime. 

I have followed the instructions meticulously.

And the time for my return turns out to be NOW!

Still the return seems to be hurting like Hell and is totally not much fun!

Maybe it will get to be later.

Stay tuned for more, as my adventure of a lifetime begins to sparkle and shine.