It began like this:

I spent the weekend in Glen Rose, Texas at the Fall Leadership Conference hosted by the SWUUC . I attended the “Beyond Fundraising” track, led by Wayne B. [...]]]> A week or so ago, Kimberlyn sent me an essay she wrote, asking if I thought it was too long for this blog.

It began like this:

I spent the weekend in Glen Rose, Texas at the Fall Leadership Conference hosted by the SWUUC . I attended the “Beyond Fundraising” track, led by Wayne B. Clark, UUA Director of Congregational Stewardship Services.

I learned many, many things that will help me in my role as a lay leader at UUCOC. I also had a very personal revelation while I was there, and I’d like to share that here.

In one of our early sessions, Wayne was talking about how we perceive money, and the value we attach to it beyond its actual function – essentially, as I understood what he was saying, money is a means to an end. Period. Or something like that. I know the phrase “Joyful giving” was in there somewhere.

It’s a brilliant essay – funny, candid, and full of themes relevant to all of us – but it was a bit too long for the blog.

You can still read it, however, because I convinced Kimberlyn to let us publish it in the web-zine I work for, All Things Girl.

Please join me in congratulating Kimberlyn on her publication, and PLEASE go read what she wrote: Joyful Giving, by Kimberlyn Crowe.

Those of you who attended church on Sunday the 15th know that we had a live reading of The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, instead of a video presentation, for our dramatic moment. The author credit was accidentally left out of the [...]]]>
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf
by Leo Buscaglia
Support UUCOC! Get this from Amazon.com >>

Those of you who attended church on Sunday the 15th know that we had a live reading of The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, instead of a video presentation, for our dramatic moment. The author credit was accidentally left out of the order of service, so we wanted to take a moment, and let you all know that while I DID make a couple of adaptations to make it flow better as a three-voice reading, I didn’t write the book.

It’s actually a children’s book that was written by Leo Buscaglia, who also offered the world his book on LOVE.

Dr. Buscaglia may have been a life-long member of the Roman Catholic church, but his ideas were universal, and ‘Freddie’ has been used to help numerous children and adults begin to process the idea of death.

A copy of the book has been donated to the UUCOC library.

Here’s an excerpt, from the end of the story:

Freddie landed on a clump of snow. It somehow felt soft and even warm. In this new position he was more comfortable than he had ever been. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

He did not know that that Spring would follow Winter and that the snow would melt into water. He did not know that what appeared to be his useless dried self would join with the water and serve to make the tree stronger. Most of all, he did not know that there, asleep in the tree and the ground, were already plans for new leaves in the Spring.

It was the spring of 1997 and I was treating one of my dearest friends and colleague, after hours in my clinic after a long day of seeing very complicated orthopedic medicine and chronic pain patients. Ron was a 57 year old psychologist who was scheduled the following morning to have a thoracotomy performed [...]]]>

It was the spring of 1997 and I was treating one of my dearest friends and colleague, after hours in my clinic after a long day of seeing very complicated orthopedic medicine and chronic pain patients. Ron was a 57 year old psychologist who was scheduled the following morning to have a thoracotomy performed in order to replace his congenitally leaking aortic valve. He was understandably nervous of his chances of surviving the next twenty four hours having been informed of all of the potential complications that might occur when his chest was cracked open to expose his body’s most vital and energetically mysterious organ. What happened most un-expectantly between us in that treatment room changed the course of both my professional and personal life’s forever.

I did not know it then, but I am what is called an “Indigo Adult” or “Star Seed” depending on whose label we choose to identify a new breed of human being that is infiltrating this dimension at this time in our collective astrophysical history. Our coming has been foretold by hundreds of ancient, shamanistic cultures and societies to be accompanying the changes that our solar system and galaxy are experiencing as our earth’s true north node completes what is called the “Procession of the Equinoxes.” According to ancient lore, this new breed of human has come to help hold and ground the energy as we traverse the “Shift of the Ages.” We are energetically wired differently, “cable ready” allowing us to do exactly this.

The Maya have been most associated with describing what is happening as we move ever closer and through the fabled 2012 end date. On December 21st , 2021 our earth’s north node aligns with our sun exactly in the middle of what is called the “Dark Rift,” or “Great Mother,” the actual center point of the Milky Way’s equator – otherwise known as “Galactic Center.” It is here where all life in our galaxy began. It is here, where the black hole remnants of the “Big Bang” reside. This is the time where each one of us will have the opportunity to choose chaos and disaster versus infinite possibility. We are now noticing many physical changes never before experienced by an advanced human society. Or so it is being said. Fore this occurrence only happens once every 26,000 years. What happened between Ron and I was one of those strange, yet unknown phenomenon that we, the Indigos are wired for.

I am a board certified family physician who specializes in orthopedic medicine where I utilize many treatment modalities to address diagnostic and treatment dilemmas of the musculoskeletal system. My most effective secret weapon treatment modality is osteopathic manual medicine. This is a dying art with in osteopathic medical profession of which I hold both a masters degree in Clinical Biomechanics and an academic teaching appointment in at Michigan State University, College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Lansing Michigan. Before Ron’s chest was to be pried open and held that way with aluminum allow retractors for over three hours, I wanted to make sure that the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, along with the joints of the rib cage and soft tissues were moving and their in their most flexible states in order to reduce the chances of a post-operative pain syndrome later on. I treat the body in a defined sequence and always finish by balancing both the central and peripheral nervous system with cranial-sacral therapy. It was during this process that something completely unfamiliar to me came crashing down through the top of my head and circulated throughout my central and peripheral nervous systems, then came barreling out of my chest, arms and hands into Ron’s head.

What was even stranger was that he felt it the moment it entered his system which confirmed to me that it was real. We were chatting at the time when this surge of energy dropped through my occiput as I had my head and neck slightly flexed forward as I hunched over my stool holding the tempral bones on the side of Ron’s head. In my usual state of vacuous presence I felt it before Ron and immediately started analyzing what it could be. It felt like a rush of directional current flowing down my spine and legs, then circulating back up in the opposite direction once it reached my feet that were off the ground perched on the stool’s foot stand. It came careening up through my chest and felt as if it made a giant soap bubble between my chest, arms, hands and the top of Ron’s head. When it reached his head, he said in mid sentence, “I…I…don’t want to talk right now.”

I sat with it experiencing what most closely felt like a shiver running down my spine with a new added sensation of a reverse flow. Something I had never experienced before – or had I? My mind was reeling with the task of trying to “figure it out,” while my body was lost in its pure bliss of activated sensation. Then it struck me. It did somehow feel familiar. I checked in again. Yes, it was similar. But why now, how inappropriate and why Ron? We were friends. Never had our interaction ever contained hints of physical attraction. Concentrating, half believing what my mind had decided on, I succumb. An orgasm. It felt like it was running on the same circuits in my nervous system that of an orgasm. Yet, there was a clear knowing that it was simply a physical circuitry phenomenon without emotional or sexual content.

It lasted no more than 15 seconds then it vanished. We were both shocked as Ron literally jumped off the table and faced me. We spent a good part of the next fifteen minutes exploring what the hell had just happened. He described what he felt as pure bliss, a sense of warmth comforting him. He likened it to warm honey oozing down through his head and neck, surrounding his chest leaving him with the knowing that all is well, he is loved and supported and everything was going to turn out good and right with nothing more to question or worry about. He was not sure where this message was coming from, but he was absolutely sure about what he received. I on the other hand knew what ever it was simply came through me and not from me. It was not mine to create or modify. I was simply the connector between whatever it was that needed to get to Ron.

This physical sense of support, love and bliss lasted throughout that night and into the next morning all the way through his induction under anesthesia. This experience and the discovery that I, and other Indigos are “wired” particularly for this purpose set me off on a ten year adventure that incorporated at times unbelievable synchronistic discoveries that seemed more than a divinely guided curriculum that eventually led me to discover what it is, who I am and what is my true purpose for being here. I share the totality of what led to this particular experience and what came after in my book Indigo Awakening; A Doctor’s Memoir For Forging An Authentic Life in a Turbulent World. It is the first book written from the perspective of what it feels like to experience the world growing up with an expanded consciousness having access to knowledge that was not learned (at least in this lifetime) and having a vast array of fantastic traits and abilities not yet seen or appreciated by most of those around me. Part of the mission of my being here at this most unique time in our cosmos’ history is to share this story so that the others who have also chosen a similar missionary incarnation will awaken unto their true selves. This story will act as a reflective mirror to the reader demonstrating the similar themes and uncanny details that run through our collective experience. It is a story of perseverance never giving up in the face of what seems like insurmountable odds on the journey within to find what we are truly made of.

I first heard about Laura Pedersen’s memoir Buffalo Gal when I was browsing UU World a week or so ago. I was caught by her sense of humor and the fact that she’s roughly my contemporary (five years older, but we watched the same TV shows). I mean, how often [...]]]>
Buffalo Gal
Laura Pedersen
Get it from Amazon.com

I first heard about Laura Pedersen’s memoir Buffalo Gal when I was browsing UU World a week or so ago. I was caught by her sense of humor and the fact that she’s roughly my contemporary (five years older, but we watched the same TV shows). I mean, how often does one find a book by a UU woman on mainstream shelves?

Of course I had to buy the book.
Of course I had to read the book.

My measure of a good stort – fiction or non-fiction – is whether or not I feel compelled to read it straight through in one sitting. By this definition, Pedersen’s memoir is a good story. It’s about her childhood in Buffalo, NY, as an only child (another thing I could relate to) of UU parents, in a largely Catholic community.

At times funny, at times poignant, and laced with no small measure of self-deprecation, Buffalo Gal is an enjoyable read.
Buffalo Gal

This isn’t a book review.

Many people stopped me after church last week to ask for the title and author of the writing book I mentioned, so I thought I’d link it here as the inaugural post for the new category “reading matters.”

What’s this category for? [...]]]>
Writing Down the Bones
by Natalie Goldberg
Available at Amazon >>

This isn’t a book review.

Many people stopped me after church last week to ask for the title and author of the writing book I mentioned, so I thought I’d link it here as the inaugural post for the new category “reading matters.”

What’s this category for?

Well, it can be used for links to books that are mentioned at church, during religious education, etc.

Or it can be for brief reviews of the books any of us are reading, so that we can share them with each other.

Also, if there’s a book mentioned that strikes your fancy, following the link to Amazon to purchase it helps generate tiny amounts of revenue for the church.

Book reviews should be capsule reviews, no more than 300 words. Don’t go through the entire plot, just give a brief sketch and tell us if you liked it. Here’s a sample:

When I first encountered the book Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, I was working in a bookstore/cafe. It was the summer after my freshman year of college, and I was crushing on a poet who would come in and nurse a latte while he wrote in a battered notebook.

He didn’t recommend this book, it just jumped out at me one slow afternoon. I began reading it during my shift, and had to buy it and take it home so I could finish it. I learned about writing as a form of meditation, and that it’s okay to write just for yourself, sometimes.

I also learned that it’s important to give yourself permission to write drivel, as long as you keep writing.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes the written word, whether or not they write professionally, but especially to people interested in memoirs, or in keeping a journal.

Okay. Your turn.