Sunday, November 5, 2023

"All Is Not Lost... What A Chimera!"

"All Is Not Lost... What A Chimera!"

"If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost;
you can still call him vile names."
- Elbert Hubbard

"What a chimera then is man!
What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos,
 what a contradiction, what a prodigy!
Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth;
depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error;
 the pride and refuse of the universe!
 Who will unravel this tangle?"
- Blaise Pascal

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "I Happened to Be Standing"

"I Happened to Be Standing"

"I don't know where prayers go,
     or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
     half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
     crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
     growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
     along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
     of little importance, in full
self-attendance. A condition I can't really
     call being alive.
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
     or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that's their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.
While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don't know why. And yet, why not.
I wouldn't persuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don't. That's your business.
But I thought, of the wren's singing, what could this be
     if it isn't a prayer?
So I just listened, my pen in the air.”

- Mary Oliver

The Daily "Near You?"

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Don't Wonder..."

“Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't. 
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant, 
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together.”
- “Meredith”, “Grey's Anatomy”

"You..."

"And finally this question, the mystery of whose story it will be, of who draws the curtain. Who is it that chooses our steps in the dance? Who drives us mad? Lashes us with whips and crowning us with victory when we survive the impossible? Who is it that does all these things? Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we'll never die? Who teaches us what's real and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we'll die to defend? Who chains us and who holds the key that can set us free? It's YOU... You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!"
- Zack Snyder

"17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"

"17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"
by Jerry Clark

“I remember several years back I heard something that changed my life forever. Up until that point I had been struggling through life – doing everything the hard way. I couldn’t figure out why my life wasn’t going the way I felt it should be. I saw some people going through life effortlessly and seemingly with less tension and frustration while I was wondering if I could ever straighten out the mess my life had turned out to be. I was behind on my dreams, my promises, and my bills. Then one day I was listening to a tape and the lady was talking about the power of having dreams and goals and all of the other stuff that those motivational speakers talk about. By that point I had listened to hundreds of such tapes, but it seemed as if nothing worked for me.

Probably the only reason I was listening to that one was because I had developed a habit of listening to cassette tapes while driving my car. The statement the lady said was simple and I think I had even heard it somewhere before but this time a light bulb went on in my head. I remember stopping the tape and rewinding it over and over again to hear the 17 words she said. I couldn’t believe it was so basic and simple. I was looking for something sophisticated and complicated. I thought I had to attend a $10,000 seminar. I didn’t know I could find it on a $10 tape program.

I’m taking the time to tell you all of this preliminary information because when I tell you the 17 words, I really want you to get it and get it NOW! Because if you get it NOW, your life will never be the same. You will be using the same principle that all who have became wealthy before you have used. Even those who became wealthy and can’t tell you how they did use this same principle without even being aware of what they are doing. Well, are you ready for the 17 words that made a powerful and positive impact on my life and on the life of tens of thousands of individuals who have achieved unimaginable success? Of course you are… Well, here they are…

For things to change, you must get a picture of what you want them to change to. 

Yes, it’s as simple as it sounds and as easy as it seems… Don’t try to make it any complicated than this because it will only frustrate you. You must know exactly what you want and the more specific and clear you can get, the better. This is important because Human Beings are Teleological in nature… In other words, we move towards the pictures we constantly hold in our minds. Let me give you an example… Suppose you went to the store and bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle but it didn’t have a picture on the box of what the end result should look like.

Would you have a much harder time putting the picture together? Of course. You may eventually figure it out; however, the person who has a clear picture of what the end result should look like will be more than 100 times ahead of you. The question is are they 100 times ahead of you because their IQ is 100 times greater? Is it because they are 100 times better looking than you? Maybe it’s because they live 100 times closer to the person who created the puzzle? Ohh, I know – they were one of the first students to take the Evelyn Woods mind-expanding speed-reading and comprehension course right? If none of this is true then what is?

Yes, the person who had the clear and specific picture of what the outcome was supposed to be was simply operating in accordance to how our brain works. It moves towards the pictures we hold in our mind. It’s interesting because once you know exactly what it is you are moving towards, you seem to automatically know the steps to take or the necessary steps will soon become noticeable.

Your brain's subconscious mind, operating similar to a magnet, will start to attract in your direction the conditions, people, and circumstances that will help you move closer to the mental picture you maintain in your mind and it will repel all of those things that do not correlate to the picture you have in your mind. Therefore, the people who are clear and specific about what they want are using the powers of the Universe to assist them. This is, indeed, an awesome power. A person who knows how and uses this awesome power of the Universe to his or her advantage is a person who is working smart. A person who struggles every day trying to move closer to the success that they have no idea how it’s supposed to look is a person who is working hard.

Based on your observations over the years, do you think that most people are working hard or working smart? People who just work hard day in and day out without a clear picture of what they are moving towards are about as exciting as a tulip. Even though they may seem to be willing to work hard and put in the hours, they don’t seem to have much life in them. And people want to follow people who seem to have some life in them. If they want to find people who don’t seem to have much life in them, all they have to do is go to their job. People will follow people who look like they know where they are going and look like they are excited about the journey.

You must understand that your strength comes from knowing what you want. This will ignite the fire inside of you and enable you to borrow from the promise of the future so you can engage in the activities today that will move you closer and closer to what you want. It will enable you to go through the trials and tribulations that may be necessary so you can arrive at your destination. But remember the journey will be more important than the destination because in the journey you will become the person you require to become to finally arrive at your destination. So when you reach your destination, look at the person you have become and set a new destination so you can continue to grow and develop.

Whatever you do, just always remember that for things to change, you must get a picture of what you want them to change to. These are the "17 Words that Changed My Life Forever"… why not allow them to change yours too?”
- http://prorev.com

"From Stardust to Sapiens: A Stunning Serenade to Our Cosmic Origins and Our Ongoing Self-Creation"

"From Stardust to Sapiens: A Stunning Serenade to 
Our Cosmic Origins and Our Ongoing Self-Creation"
By Maria Popova

"We were never promised any of it - this world of cottonwoods and clouds - when the Big Bang set the possible in motion. And yet here we are, atoms with consciousness, each of us a living improbability forged of chaos and dead stars. Children of chance, we have made ourselves into what we are - creatures who can see a universe of beauty in the feather of a bird and can turn a blind eye to each other’s suffering, creatures capable of the Benedictus and the bomb. Creatures who hope.

A generation after Maya Angelou held up a cosmic mirror to humanity with “A Brave and Startling Truth,” Pattiann Rogers - who writes with uncommon virtuosity about the intersection of the cosmic and the human, and whose poems have therefore been a frequent presence in "The Universe in Verse" - offers a poignant cosmogony of our self-creation in the stunning final poem of her book "Flickering" (public library).                                                            
                                             "Homo Sapiens: Creating Themselves"
by Pattiann Rogers, Read by Maria Popova

I.
"Formed in the black-light center of a star-circling
galaxy; formed in whirlpool images of froth
and flume and fulcrum; in the center image of herring
circling like pieces of silver swirling fast, a shoaling
circle of deception; in the whirlpool perfume of sex
in the deepest curve of a lily’s soft corolla. Created
within the images of the creator’s creation.

Born with the same grimacing wrench of a tree-covered
cliff split wide suddenly by lightning and opened
to thundering clouds of hail and rain.

Cured in the summer sun as if in a potter’s oven,
polished like a stone rolled by a river, emboldened
by the image of the expanse beyond earth’s horizon,
inside and outside a circumference in the image
of freedom.

Given the image of starlight clusters steadily silent
above a hillside-silence of fallen snow… let there be sleep.

II.
Inheriting from the earth’s scrambling minions,
images of thorn and bur, fang and claw, stealth,
deceit, poison, camouflage, blade, and blood…
let there be suffering, let there be survival.

Shaped by the image of the onset and unstoppable
devouring eclipse of the sun, the tempestuous, ecliptic
eating of the moon, the volcanic explosions of burning
rocks and fiery hail of ashes to death… let there be
terror and tears. Let there be pity.

Created in the image of fear inside a crawfish
skittering backward through a freshwater stream
with all eight appendages in perfect coordination,
both pincers held high, backing into safety beneath
a fallen leaf refuge… let there be home.

III.
Made in the image of the moon, where else
would the name of ivory rock craters shine
except in our eyes… let there be language.

Displayed in the image of the rotting seed
on the same stem with the swelling blossom…
let there be hope.

Homo sapiens creating themselves after the manner
and image of the creator’s ongoing creation — slowly,
eventual, alert and imagined, composing, dissembling,
until the right chord sounds from one brave strum
of the right strings reverberating, fading away
like evening… let there be pathos, let there be
compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. Let there be
weightless beauty.

Of earth and sky, Homo sapiens creating themselves,
following the mode and model of the creator’s creation,
particle by particle, quest by quest, witness by witness,
even though the unknown far away and the unknown
nearby be seen and not seen… let there be goodwill
and accounting, let there be praise resounding."

Complement with astronomer-poet Rebecca Elson’s ode to dark matter and the mystery of being, “Let There Always Be Light,” non-speaking autistic poet Hannah Emerson’s astonishing “Center of the Universe,” and Jane Hirshfield’s “To Be a Person,” then revisit Pattiann Rogers’s harmonic of the human and cosmic perspectives, read by David Byrne and illustrated by Maira Kalman."

"How It REALLY Is"

Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Dan, I Allegedly, "Evictions Are At An All Time High"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 11/5/23
"Evictions Are At An All Time High"
"We just saw a record get set for evictions. This is only growing around the country. Plus, we are seeing more warning signs from experts about the state of the economy."
Comments here:
o
7,949 evictions in Maricopa County, Arizona in October...
Ray Charles, "America The Beautiful"

Yeah...

"Items To Add To Your Stockpile Before Everything Hits The Fan!"

Adventures With Danno, AM 11/5/23
"Items To Add To Your Stockpile
 Before Everything Hits The Fan!"
'We are going over items that are good to stock up on for winter 2023! With unknown outcomes to events going on around the world right now, it is a very wise idea to stock up on some of these holiday items as we are expecting food shortages, and rising prices in the grocery stores in the upcoming months!"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead"

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin

Your guide...
Full screen recommended.
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/5/23
"Markets, A Look Ahead: Are You Next? 
Prepare For A New Wave Of Bank Failures"
Comments here:

"Credit Card Companies Pump The Brakes On Lending, MAJOR Economic Meltdown"

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/5/23
"Credit Card Companies Pump The Brakes 
On Lending, MAJOR Economic Meltdown"
"We're experiencing a record surge in defaults, hitting the highest levels in 24 years. Presently, debt delinquencies are on the rise, surpassing 2019 levels. 43.5 million Americans have resumed paying their student loans in October. What can we expect in the coming months? A probable increase in deficits across various sectors. With the upcoming holiday season and increased spending on gifts, people will rely more on credit cards. This will lead to a higher rate of defaults. If the companies struggle to collect fares, they will identify high risk individuals and their access. This trajectory will lead to what appears to be an impending credit crunch in the United States."
Comments here:

Greg Hunter, "Terrorists Blowing Up Stuff Gives Excuse for Martial Law"

"Terrorists Blowing Up Stuff Gives Excuse for Martial Law"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong began 2023 predicting “chaos” would be coming around the world. We have a bloody war in Ukraine, a new conflict with Gaza and Israel, and a wide open U.S. border with the FBI predicting huge terror attacks coming to America. Is this kind of destabilization a coincidence or is it a Deep State globalist plan? Why are the demonic dark powers taking peace from the earth and forecasting big terror events coming to America? Armstrong contends, “It is very simple. Basically, we are looking at a sovereign default. Governments are pushed to the limit at this stage. You even had Fed Head Jay Powell come out last week and say ‘the spending is unsustainable.’ The Biden Administration is a complete corrupt absolute disaster. It’s not really Biden, he’s just there to sign whatever they stick in front of him.”

So, a debt default will tank the economy and make millions of Americans poor and broke overnight. Poor and broke is how revolutions and civil unrest start, especially against the government that caused all the problems. Armstrong contends this is why the Southern U.S. border has been wide open for the past three years. The Deep State corrupt Biden Administration (RINO Republicans included) want terrorists to come to America and commit awful acts of violence and murder. Why? Armstrong explains, “You have Neocons pushing for war on all possible fronts. Terrorism leads to lockdowns. As soon as you start getting this, they will have to know what everybody is doing and where they are moving. You are looking at ‘Papers, Please.’ Lockdowns are coming to America again, absolutely. This is to prevent civil unrest. So, they want the terrorists to blow up some stuff. This gives them the excuse to effectively enforce martial law. This helps the government to hold onto power.”

Armstrong thinks interest rates and inflation are going to go up for a while. He thinks the U.S. dollar will get stronger because capital will flow to the U.S. in times of crisis and war. Armstrong thinks Hamas has won the public relations war and is trying to isolate Israel on the world stage. This attack is much deeper than anyone imagines. Armstrong says get tangible assets, and that includes gold and silver as core assets. He also thinks the global economy will implode, but the USA goes down last. Armstrong says the economy will tank in America, but it will be much worse in Blue states like New York, California and Illinois. There is much more in the 58-minute interview."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Worldwide Unrest!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/4/23
"Alert! Worldwide Unrest! US Army Panic! F-16s In Ukraine; 
Iran Threatens Blinken; Lebanon Prepares"
Comments here:

Saturday, November 4, 2023

MUST VIEW! Scott Ritter, "The Entire Israeli Forces Trapped in Russia's Crossfire"

Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 11/4/23
"The Entire Israeli Forces Trapped in Russia's Crossfire"
Comments here:

"Warning! Global Financial System Power Outage Next; Bank Glitch Yesterday, Your Paycheck Is Missing"

Jeremiah Babe, 11/4/23
"Warning! Global Financial System Power Outage Next;
Bank Glitch Yesterday, Your Paycheck Is Missing"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Kindred Spirits"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Kindred Spirits"
"Once we sailed upon the seas. Now we sail among the stars. This song was composed as a tribute to our friend, harpist Hilary Stagg, who left us far too soon. Hilary loved the sea and he loved the stars."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Few butterflies have a wingspan this big. The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of this particular planetary nebula is exceptionally hot though - shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. 
 Click image for larger size.
This dramatically detailed close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope soon after it was upgraded in 2009. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).”

"As I've Aged"

"As I've Aged"
Author Unknown

“You ask me how it feels to grow older. I’ve learned a few things along the way, which I’ll share with you...

As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of many years ago, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it). May our friendship never come apart especially when it’s straight from the heart!”

Chet Raymo, “Salt And Nerves”

“Salt And Nerves”
by Chet Raymo

“I like to think that every day offers at least one unique revelation, some one thing seen or experienced that has not been seen or experienced before, at least not in the same emotional state, in the same context, in the same slant of light. So I walk wary, as the poet Sylvia Plath says, "ignorant/ Of whatever angel may choose to flare/ Suddenly at my elbow." Nature seldom disappoints.

Let me introduce you to another poet, my colleague here at the college, Anna Ross. In the particular poem I want to share she is walking with a companion and comes upon the bleached skeleton of an elk, its upturned ribcage "picked white as crocus tips in the long grass." An animal skeleton, in a place where such an encounter is not unexpected. But this skeleton, "skull nosing/ the green suggestion of water/ in the run-off ditch" brings the walkers up short. They see their house in the distance, and the weather coming east, "skinning the gray jaw-lines of the ridges." The poet's language holds the elk in a context of earth and sky: "skinning," "jaw-lines.

The angel flares. "Do we find these things," asks the poet, "or are they in us like salt and nerves?" This of course is the fundamental question of philosophy: Do we perceive reality objectively, or do we create reality? The scientist and the poet stake out their claims somewhere along a spectrum of objectivity/subjectivity, and hone their tools accordingly. Anna Ross asks the question - do we find these things or are they in us? - and lets it hang there, unanswered, in the pregnant air, as she and her companion turn back toward home, encountering, as they do, a grouse in the path, "a frenzy of dust and wing-beat," and chicks that rise, "hang uncertain," and veer away.

The question goes unanswered, but the title of the poem tells us all we need to know: "Evidence." Those elk bones, the weather, the gray jaw-lines of the ridges, the grouse and her chicks - mute evidences of the only thing that matters, the angel, the revelation, the sudden gift of grace that comes unexpectedly - I quote Plath again - "thus hallowing an interval/ Otherwise inconsequent/ By bestowing largesse, honor/ One might say love."

"A Gathering of the Tribe"

"A Gathering of the Tribe"
by Charles Eisenstein

"Once upon a time a great tribe of people lived in a world far away from ours. Whether far away in space, or in time, or even outside of time, we do not know. They lived in a state of enchantment and joy that few of us today dare to believe could exist, except in those exceptional peak experiences when we glimpse the true potential of life and mind. One day the shaman of the tribe called a meeting. They gathered around him, and he spoke very solemnly. "My friends," he said, "there is a world that needs our help. It is called Earth, and its fate hangs in the balance. Its humans have reached a critical point in their collective birthing, and they will be stillborn without our help. Who would like to volunteer for a mission to this time and place, and render service to humanity?"

"Tell us more about his mission," they asked. "I am glad you asked, because it is no small thing. I will put you into a deep, deep trance, so complete that you will forget who you are. You will live a human life, and in the beginning you will completely forget your origins. You will forget even our language and your own true name. You will be separated from the wonder and beauty of our world, and from the love that bathes us all. You will miss it deeply, yet you will not know what it is you are missing. You will only remember the love and beauty that we know to be normal as a longing in your heart. Your memory will take the form of an intuitive knowledge, as you plunge into the painfully marred earth, that a more beautiful world is possible.

As you grow up in that world, your knowledge will be under constant assault. You will be told in a million ways that a world of destruction, violence, drudgery, anxiety, and degradation is normal. You may go through a time when you are completely alone, with no allies to affirm your knowledge of a more beautiful world. You may plunge into a depth of despair that we, in our world of light, cannot imagine. But no matter what, a spark of knowledge will never leave you. A memory of your true origin will be encoded in your DNA. That spark will lie within you, inextinguishable, until one day it is awakened.

You see, even though you will feel, for a time, utterly alone, you will not be alone. I will send you assistance, help that you will experience as miraculous, experiences that you will describe as transcendent. For a few moments or hours or days, you will reawaken to the beauty and the joy that is meant to be. You will see it on earth, for even though the planet and its people are deeply wounded, there is beauty there still, projected from past and future onto the present as a promise of what is possible and a reminder of what is real.

You will also receive help from each other. As you begin to awaken to your mission you will meet others of our tribe. You will recognize them by your common purpose, values, and intuitions, and by the similarity of the paths you have walked. As the condition of the planet earth reaches crisis proportions, your paths will cross more and more. The time of loneliness, the time of thinking you might be crazy, will be over.

You will find the people of your tribe all over the earth, and become aware of them through the long-distance communication technologies used on that planet. But the real shift, the real quickening, will happen in face-to-face gatherings in special places on earth. When many of you gather together you will launch a new stage on your journey, a journey which, I assure you, will end where it began. Then, the mission that lay unconscious within you will flower into consciousness. Your intuitive rebellion against the world presented you as normal will become an explicit quest to create a more beautiful one.

In the time of loneliness, you will always be seeking to reassure yourself that you are not crazy. You will do that by telling people all about what is wrong with the world, and you will feel a sense of betrayal when they don't listen to you. You will be hungry for stories of wrongness, atrocity, and ecological destruction, all of which confirm the validity of your intuition that a more beautiful world exists. But after you have fully received the help I will send you, and the quickening of your gatherings, you will no longer need to do that. Because, you will Know. Your energy will thereafter turn toward actively creating that more beautiful world."

A tribeswoman asked the shaman, "How do you know this will work? Are you sure your shamanic powers are great enough to send us on such a journey?" The shaman replied, "I know it will work because I have done it many times before. Many have already been sent to earth, to live human lives, and to lay the groundwork for the mission you will undertake now. I've been practicing! The only difference now is that many of you will venture there at once. What is new in the time you will live in, is that the Gatherings are beginning to happen."

A tribesman asked, "Is there a danger we will become lost in that world, and never wake up from the shamanic trance? Is there a danger that the despair, the cynicism, the pain of separation will be so great that it will extinguish the spark of hope, the spark of our true selves and origin, and that we will separated from our beloved ones forever?"

The shaman replied, "That is impossible. The more deeply you get lost, the more powerful the help I will send you. You might experience it at the time as a collapse of your personal world, the loss of everything important to you. Later you will recognize the gift within it. We will never abandon you." Another man asked, "Is it possible that our mission will fail, and that this planet, earth, will perish?"

The shaman replied, "I will answer your question with a paradox. It is impossible that your mission will fail. Yet, its success hangs on your own actions. The fate of the world is in your hands. The key to this paradox lies within you, in the feeling you carry that each of your actions, even your personal, secret struggles within, has cosmic significance. You will know then, as you do now, that everything you do matters. God sees everything."

There were no more questions. The volunteers gathered in a circle, and the shaman went to each one. The last thing each was aware of was the shaman blowing smoke in his face. They entered a deep trance and dreamed themselves into the world where we find ourselves today.

Who are these missionaries from the more beautiful world? You and I are surely among them. Where else could this longing come from, for this magical place to be found nowhere on earth, this beautiful time outside of time? It comes from our intuitive knowledge of our origin and destination. The longing, indomitable, will never settle for a world that is less. Against all reason, we look upon the horrors of our age, mounting over the millennia, and we say NO, it does not have to be this way! We know it, because we have been there. We carry in our souls the knowledge that a more beautiful world is possible. Reason says it is impossible; reason says that even to slow - much less reverse - the degradation of the planet is an impossible task: politically unfeasible, opposed by the Money Power and its oligarchies. It is true that those powers will fight to uphold the world we have known. Their allies lurk within even ourselves: despair, cynicism, and resignation to carving out a life that is "good enough" for me and mine.

But we of the tribe know better. In the darkest despair a spark of hope lies inextinguishable within us, ready to be fanned into flames at the slightest turn of good news. However compelling the cynicism, a jejune idealism lives within us, always ready to believe, always ready to look upon new possibilities with fresh eyes, surviving despite infinite disappointments. And however resigned we may have felt, our aggrandizement of me and mine is half-hearted, for part of our energy is looking elsewhere, outward toward our true mission.

I would like to advise caution against dividing the world into two types of people, those who are of the tribe and those who are not. How often have you felt like an alien in a world of people who don't get it and don't care? The irony is that nearly everyone feels that way, deep down. When we are young the feeling of mission and the sense of magnificent origins and a magnificent destination is strong. Any career or way of life lived in betrayal of that knowing is painful, and can only be maintained through an inner struggle that shuts down a part of our being. For a time, we can keep ourselves functioning through various kinds of addictions or trivial pleasures to consume the life force and dull the pain. In earlier times, we might have kept the sense of mission and destiny buried for a lifetime, and called that condition maturity. Times are changing now though, as millions of people are awakening to their mission all at the same time. The condition of the planet is waking us up. Another way to put it, is that we are becoming young again.

When you feel that sense of alienation, when you look upon that sea of faces mired so inextricably in the old world and fighting to maintain it, think back to a time when you too were, to all outside appearances, a full and willing participant in that world as well. The same spark of revolution you carried then, the same secret refusal, dwells in all people. How was it that you finally stopped fighting it? How was it that you came to realize that you were right all along, that the world offered to us is wrong, and that no life is worth living that does not in some way strive to create a better one? How was it that it became intolerable to devote your life energy toward the perpetuation of the old world? Most likely, it happened when the old world fell apart around your ears.

As the multiple crises of money, health, energy, ecology, and more converge upon us, the world is going to collapse for millions more. We must stand ready to welcome them into the tribe. We must stand ready to welcome them back home.

The time of loneliness, of walking the path alone, of thinking maybe the world is right and I am wrong for refusing to participate fully in it... that time is over. For years we walked around talking about how wrong everything is: the political system, the educational system, religious institutions, the military-industrial complex, the banking industry, the medical system - really, any system you study deeply enough. We needed to talk about it because we needed to assure ourselves that we were not, in fact, crazy. We needed as well to talk about alternatives, the way things should be. "We" should eliminate CFCs. "They" should stop cutting down the rain forests. "The government" should declare no fishing zones. This talk, too, was necessary, for it validated our vision of the world that could be: a peaceful and exuberant humanity living in co-creative partnership with a wild garden earth.

The time, though, for talking merely to assure ourselves that we are right is coming to an end. People everywhere are tired of it, tired of attending yet another lecture, organizing yet another discussion group online. We want more. A few weeks ago as I was preparing for a speaking trip to Oregon, the organizers told me, "These people don't need to be told what the problems are. They don't even need to be told what the solutions are. They already know that, and many of them are already in action. What they want is to take their activism to the next level."

To do that, to fully step into one's mission here on earth, one must experience an inner shift that cannot be merely willed upon oneself. It does not normally happen through the gathering or receiving of information, but through various kinds of experiences that reach deep into our unconscious minds. Whenever I am blessed with such an experience, I get the sense that some benevolent yet pitiless power - the shaman in the story - has reached across the void to quicken me, to reorganize my DNA, to rewire my nervous system. I come away changed.

Here I am, a speaker and a writer, going on about how the time for mere talk has ended. Yet not all words are mere talk. A spirit can ride the vehicle of words, a spirit that is larger than, yet not separate from, their meaning. Sometimes I find that when I bow into service, that spirit inhabits the space in which I speak and affects all present. A sacredness infuses our conversations and the non-verbal experiences that are becoming part of my events. In the absence of that sacredness, I feel like a smart-ass, up there entertaining people and telling them information they could just as easily read online. Last Friday night I spoke on a panel in New York, one of three smart-asses, and I think many in the audience left disappointed (though maybe not as disappointed as I was in myself). We are looking for something more, and it is finding us.

The revolutionary spark of our true mission has been fanned into flames before, only to return again to an ember. You may remember an acid trip in 1975, a Grateful Dead concert in 1982, a kundalini awakening in 1999 - an event that, in the midst of it, you knew was real, a privileged glimpse into a future that can actually manifest. Then later, as its reality faded into memory and the inertial routines of life consumed you, you perhaps dismissed it and all such experiences as an excursion from life, a mere "trip." But something in you knows it was real, realer than the routines of normalcy. Today, such experiences are accelerating in frequency even as "normal" falls apart. We are at the beginning of a new phase. Our gatherings are not a substitute for action; they are an initiation into a state of being from which the necessary kinds of actions arise. Soon you will say, with wonder and serenity, "I know what to do, and I trust myself to do it."

The Daily "Near You?"

Clarkston, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Helpless..."

Americans, face-in-the-phone champions of willful ignorance.
They don't know because they don't want to know...
o
'One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless."
- Henry Miller
 "Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day..."
Oh, we so deserve what we get...

Canadian Prepper, "Stock Up Before The Panic!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/4/23
"Stock Up Before The Panic!"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Insiders Tell All - Get Ready"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 11/4/23
"Insiders Tell All - Get Ready"
"Today I’m sharing some very alarming stories from the banking industry, the business service industry, and the auto industry. You need to get ready for what’s coming. It’s already happening."
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"How It Really Is"

 

"15 Biggest Retail Chains Are In Trouble, Prepare For A Massive Wipeout"

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/4/23
"15 Biggest Retail Chains Are In Trouble,
 Prepare For A Massive Wipeout"
"A massive wipeout like never seen before is coming, and these companies know it. Yet, they continue to churn out promising reports to lure investors and keep the general public believing that all is well. We have reported in previous videos about giant retailers gradually downsizing under the guise of incessant theft cases, but we now know that this is far from the truth. These 15 biggest retail chains are in deep trouble, and it appears that they're going down fast and hard."
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur60URxTqPQ

Adventures With Danno, "Outrageous Prices At Publix! This Is Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 11/4/23
"Outrageous Prices At Publix! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Publix and are noticing some outrageous price increases on groceries! Prices continue to rise due to a multitude of reasons, making it hard on many families to even put food on the table!"
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Friday, November 3, 2023

"Children Of Hope..."

"Children of Hope, to life we fondly cling,
Though woe on woe bitter hour may bring;
the spirit shrinks, and Nature dreads to brave,
The doubt, the gloom, the stillness of the grave.
But what is death? – a wing from earth to fee –
a bridge o’er time into eternity."

- Michelle, in “The Fear of Death Considered”

"World War III Update, 11/3/23"

Col. Douglas Macgregor, 11/3/23
"Woke Madness"
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o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/3/23
"Intel Roundtable w/ RayMcGovern & LarryJohnson: 
Who is winning Hamas/Israeli war?"
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Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/3/23
"Scott Ritter: How Do You See This Ending?"
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o
Scott Ritter, 11/3/23
"Israel Has Effectively LOST the War
 and Palestine Will Become a Recognized State!"
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Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Dream Ten" (Black Holes and Quasars)

Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind, "Dream Ten" (Black Holes and Quasars)

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Beautiful island universe M94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for astronomers, the brighter inner part of the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across.
Traditionally, deep images have been interpreted as showing M94's inner spiral region surrounded by a faint, broad ring of stars. But a new multi-wavelength investigation has revealed previously undetected spiral arms sweeping across the outskirts of the galaxy's disk, an outer disk actively engaged in star formation. At optical wavelengths, M94's outer spiral arms are followed in this remarkable discovery image, processed to enhance the outer disk structure. Background galaxies are visible through the faint outer arms, while the three spiky foreground stars are in our own Milky Way galaxy.”

"15 Retail Stores Going Out Of Business Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist 11/3/23
"15 Retail Stores Going Out Of Business Right Now"

"Some of the most popular retailers in the United States are reducing their physical footprint right now as consumers batten down the hatches amid inflation and tighter credit conditions. Rising real estate costs, higher wages, and increasing expenses are leaving even the best-performing chains afraid of what can happen to their balance sheets in 2024. For example, Sprouts Farmers Market has been one of the fastest-growing retail chains in the U.S. in recent years, adding 30 locations to its store count in 2023. However, not all stores that opened in the past couple of years have succeeded in the U.S. market, and now the grocery retailer is getting rid of locations that are "underperforming financially," according to a press release. Executives said the closures would mostly impact larger-format Sprouts stores, as the chain transitions to "smaller, more productive" models. The company just revealed that stores on the chopping block were located in Texas, California, Georgia, Florida, and Washington, but did not provide specifics about how many stores will be impacted just yet.

Similarly, more Target stores are going out of business as the company faces its deepest crisis ever. In the first week of September, the Minnesota-based chain announced that it would close nine locations due to theft and inventory losses. By the end of October, that number jumped to 11. “In this case, we cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,” Target said in the press release. “We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.” The retail giant said that it doubled down on security to prevent this from happening, using third-party guard services and implementing theft-deterrent tools across its business, but also noted that the financial losses were simply too big to keep these locations open.

Brands are currently observing industrywide trends that suggest a tough period for businesses is ahead. That's why they are preparing accordingly by taking steps to eliminate underperforming locations and cut costs before sales drop even further. There's also a major shift towards online shopping that is rapidly changing the American retail landscape. While some brands are closing locations to weather the storm, others are already in their last legs and won't likely survive for another year. Since 2017, the sector has been experiencing a drastic shift in consumption patterns that has pushed brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors and constantly revaluate their businesses in order to remain profitable. The pandemic added even more stress to many companies, and the inflation crisis that followed has only made things worse as shoppers started to pull back and sales started to go down. Now, as another recession unfolds, the outlook for the sector is quite gloomy. Retailers have to act now, or risk being eviscerated by this downturn in 2024. As more shutdowns are reported each week, your local retailer may stop serving your community before you even notice. For that reason, we compiled the latest store closing announcements in the retail industry."
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"It's Getting Really Bad, Jobs Report Was Horrific; US Economy Is Atrocious and Getting Worse"

Jeremiah Babe, 11/3/23
"It's Getting Really Bad, Jobs Report Was Horrific;
 US Economy Is Atrocious and Getting Worse"
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