asleep in the shadows...

That which the
dream shows
is the
shadow of such wisdom
as exists in man,
even if during his
waking state
he may
know nothing
about it....
We
do not know
it because
we are
fooling
away our time
with outward and perishing things,
and are
asleep
in regard to that
which is
real
within our
self.

mystic blessings...

let

there

be

light

the "dish" ran away with the spoon - or - the bus tried to run away from the ufo...

many many moons ago in the late 60's my children and i were traveling by bus enroute to monroe in northeast louisiana from little rock - the bus was full - we shared seats together, with my son, about five or six years old at the time, sitting next to the window - as we traveled south, our seats were on the right side of the bus - we were on a rural stretch of road between a little town called sterlington and our destination, monroe, [about 15 miles apart] when my son tried to get my attention, tugging on my arm for me to look out the window - i looked up, and there, in the sky over the fields beside us, was a huge object - an unidentified flying object [ufo] - i remember being so startled that i closed my eyes and then re-opened them to be sure i was really seeing what i knew i was seeing - and sure enough, the object was still there - the other passengers on that side of the bus were all looking at it and talking about it - i remember a lot of the passengers from across the aisle getting out of their seats and into the aisle to see it better - by then, there was general commotion with passengers wanting off the bus - passengers telling the driver to drive faster [which he did] - and all the while my children and i are watching it spellbound as it seemed to be moving very slowly parallel with us - it was not high in the sky, but very low - well, low enough for us to see it out the window without straining to look upward - i cannot say how far away it was but i can say that it was close enough that the texturized surface of the body was visible -

i remember trying to memorize all the details of the craft - its size, shape, color, how it moved - that it had no sound, none at all - that there were no engines visible - no wings - nothing at all characteristic of a plane - its size was at least that of a football field - it was oval/circular, with a domed top - if you think of a donut with a glass dome, then, that would be close to its shape but more oval than round - the glass seemed clear although i do not remember being able to see through it - there was a row of what appeared to be windows or lights encircling the bottom of the domed top - the body [donut] of the object was a matte grey - like a battleship color and very matte [non-shiny] and i remember there was what seemed to be a bit of "texture" or "mottling" to the matte finish - almost like cast iron cookware looks texture-wise [well, the old kind, anyway, like my grandmother used] -

in any event, the ufo continued beside us for quite a distance, although i cannot say how far - but for more than just a few minutes - and then, just as suddenly has it had appeared beside us, it made a 45 degree turn to its right and upward and was totally out of sight just instantly - i mean, it literally zoomed - zoomed! - and still no sound -

the bus is now traveling at a high rate of speed as the driver really was attempting to out run it and most passengers were anywhere from hysterical to more hysterical -

by the time we pulled into the monroe station, there were already news reporters there - i remember wanting only to get my children and leave - to get away from it all - by then, i somehow felt extremely fearful about the experience - as if "they" were "looking for me" - i don't mean that it was just a little feeling but an overwhelming one - as a matter of fact, i left the station without even getting our luggage - we took a taxi straight to my mother's house - and once there even, the feeling did not subside - by then, i wanted to just flee - literally - to somewhere that my children and i could not be found - to this day, i am unsure of my profound reaction - i had grown up having seen ufo's in our many travels - they were discussed by our parents - they were nothing new to me - and i had never responded with anything but total curiosity before - but this was the first "up close and personal" such experience - there was absolutely NO doubt what this object was, let alone what it was not - it was daytime - the day was clear - there was no mistaking it - so, perhaps it was these factors that precipitated my response - i do not know -

within a short time after our arrival, my mother's phone begin to ring - reporters and law enforcement - several days later, several men dressed all in black [i kid you NOT] came knocking on the door to interview me, identifying themselves as being with wright patterson afb - i told them what i saw - they had me draw a diagram of the object and i did - they took it with them - i remember at least one of the men giving me a business card when i asked for it - i also remember that some time later, when i phoned the number on the card, there was no such number - i called wright-patterson directly but no one had heard of the person for whom i asked - oh, and lest i forget, some of the news reports released identified this "object" that was seen by a bus full of people as nothing more than a "smoke cloud" emanating from an industrial site in sterlington -

not long after this incidence, my children and i moved back to monroe because my mother was ill - we moved into a little community just at the city limits - a rural area where i had hoped our lives would take on a simpler tone - but that was not to be -

more in another post down the line...

oh, the little kindergarten type sketch at the top is done from today's memory but is overall accurate -

ok - something weird[er] just as i edited this post just now, the house phone rang [we don't use the house phone ever] and the incoming call was from ohio - we don't know anyone in ohio - have no business there - the call was unidentified except for "ohio" - the only association i have with ohio is that is where wright patterson is located - weird - oh, and when i answered, there was no one there - weirder...

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Sterlington&1s=LA&1y=US&1l=32.696098&1g=-92.0858&1v=CITY&2c=Monroe&2s=LA&2y=US&2l=32.5092&2g=-92.119202&2v=CITY#a/maps/l:::Sterlington:LA::US:32.696098:-92.0858:city::1/l:::Monroe:LA::US:32.5092:-92.119202:city::1/m:hyb::::0:::::1:1:1::/io:1:::::f:EN:M:/e

the spirit man, the feather, the penny and pin...

one late late night not long ago, i was awakened in the middle of the night with a frantic phone call from someone close to me - this is her story - as she does not wish to reveal her real name, i will call her sarah here - not long ago, sarah moved into a new apartment - new to her, anyway - she was living alone now for the first time in a long time - both daughters were on their own and her son, as well - her new apartment was upstairs, toward the back of the complex, with a concrete floored balcony off the living room - everything was finally unpacked and in place - she had vacuumed and cleaned and scrubbed - she had even swept the concrete balcony even though it really had not needed it - the apartment was finally together and sarah was enjoying her new home -

but then, one day, everything changed - she had gone to bed for the night when she was awakened by a noise of some sort - she listened for a moment and then, out of her bathroom walked a man - a man she had never seen before - he walked right past her and into the living room - she was terrified - and screamed for help as she jumped out of bed and toward the living room - but the living room was empty - there was no one there - no one except her - the front door was still chain-locked from the inside - she frantically searched the apartment, but there were no signs of anyone or anything amiss - the windows all still locked - nothing out of place - she checked everywhere - and then, walked into the bathroom -

as she turned on the light, she saw nothing out of the ordinary - that is, until she looked at the tub - and there, in the tub, was a single white feather -

a feather which she had not put there and which was not there when she finished her shower before bed - still terrified, she picked up the feather and put it on the coffee table in the living room - then she went back to her bedroom where she sat in bed until daylight - with morning, she got out of bed and opened the shades and then the patio glass doors - she went out onto the patio and nothing was amiss there either - several days went by and life was as usual - and then -

a week or so later, sarah was sitting on her sofa in the living room when, through the chain-locked door, walked the same man - the man who had walked out of her bathroom that night - again, the man walked right past her, this time, into the bathroom - sarah, terrified again, jumped off the sofa and ran toward the bathroom but, once again, when she got there, she was alone - again, she checked the front door and window locks - again, nothing at all was amiss -

she went to the patio and there, on the clean concrete floor, were two objects - a penny and an air force pin - she had never seen either of them before - she picked them both up and walked into the living room where she laid them beside the white feather that was on the coffee table - still frightened, sarah was determined not to let these events disrupt her life more than they already had and went on about her business of the day, going from room to room for different things - and then, went back to the sofa at some point to sit down and read - she had just picked up her book when she noticed something different - something was not right - the feather, the penny and the pin were all gone - gone from the table where they had been just minutes before -

she searched everywhere - they had simply vanished - vanished just like the man who had appeared and disappeared - gone -

during this period of time, sarah called me several times - she was upset and crying - frightened - and considering moving from the apartment - we talked about different ways of handling things, including "asking" the man to appear again and/or when/if he did appear again to tell him to leave the apartment and not return because she was so frightened - having new locks installed [which seemed silly, actually] - and in talking, sarah remembered that right after she had moved in, she had received mail for someone at her address with a return address of the air force - at the time, she hadn't thought anything of it and had simply marked the envelope for returning to the sender - but now, the mail seemed to be a connection perhaps to the air force pin - she remembered the name on the envelope and did attempt to locate the name on the internet but to no avail -

now, i attempted to persuade her to pursue it, but she decided not to give any more of her energies or attention to this whole thing and, instead of investigating or researching further, she bought a dog - a large dog, which she keeps inside - and, since the time of doggie coming to live with her, there have been no further incidents of any unwanted visitors or of any souvenirs left behind by whomever or whatever -

we do not know the who of this story, nor the why of it - it is just sarah's story - one that she has not forgotten - and one which is shared with you -

thanks for the DANCE, patrick - we had the time of our lives...

LOVE
the only thing
you can take
with you...

ride into reality...

Man,
alone,
has the power to transform
his thoughts
into physical reality;
man,
alone,
can dream
and
make his dreams
come true.

the man who listened to his intuition...and saved the world...

Petrov in uniform 1999

twenty-six years ago, in 1983, the united states and the ussr were in the midst of strained cold war relations and under the reagan administration, things could not be much worse than the existing antagonistic relation between him and yuri andropov the soviet premier at that time - then in early september, just a few weeks previously, there had been the korean airline passenger plane shot down by the ussr killing nearly 300 people - the world political climate was more than a little strained -

it is in this tenuous political atmosphere that the story of an ordinary man who saved the world takes life - it is the story of a man about whom some of us may never have heard - he is a man that, but for a “coincidence”, none of us would, in all probability, have ever heard - his name is stanislav petrov

lieutenant colonel petrov, a member of the russian military was the officer on duty the night of September 26, 1983 - on this particular night, he had not even been originally scheduled to be on duty - he was a scientist, a supervisor - however, when the person assigned did not show for work, petrov reported for duty for the man whose job it was to warn the [then] soviet union government of an imminent nuclear missile attack [by the united states] based upon computer and satellite readings and warnings - shortly after midnight, russian time, the warning systems began a repeated alarm of approaching US missiles - the directive of the soviet government in response to such systems warnings was an immediate nuclear weapons counter-attack upon the united states - petrov assumed that the first or second warning was just a computer error as he believed if the attack were coming, there would be more than just a few launches - but the warnings continued - after five alarms, the computer system went into the START mode to begin the massive nuclear counter-attack - but petrov held fast to his intuition and did not press the “button” - he had no way of knowing if he was right - as a matter of fact, everything in front of him told him he was wrong and that a nuclear missile attack was underway at that moment - but he held firmly to his intuition and declared the warnings a computer error - then he held his breath waiting - minute after minute passed and there was no attack - his intuition had served him well - his intuition, as it turned out, had served us all well - the warnings were in error and there was no launching by the united states - of course, as one might assume, petrov’s soviet military career was thereafter short-lived - notwithstanding his heroic act, he had disobeyed military protocol and command - he retired from the military within two years and lives now as a pensioner there - he does not consider himself a hero - however, because of a scheduling “coincidence” that night and due to his steadfast perseverance in relying upon his own intuition under such dire circumstances, we are all left in his debt -

years later, petrov was honored by dag hammaarskjold of the UN, with an award from the association of world citizens - the award was a granite base with a solid glass hand holding the earth and the inscription read:

"The single hand that holds the earth symbolizes
your heroic deed on September 26, 1983
that earned you the title:
The Man Who Averted Nuclear War.”
*
The back of the award read:
“May the hand now symbolize
humanity united to save our world
by eliminating nuclear weapons
from the face of the earth.”

LITTLE UPDATES IN MY JOURNAL GADGETS...

just added a few little tidbits in the right column here - should you be so inclined, trek on over and check out the new profile text and "the gypsy's belief system" - your faithfully following along means a lot to me! thank you!

dreams and dragons and fairies...

i believe in everything
until it's disproved -
so i believe in
fairies
the myths
dragons -
it all exists
even if it's in your mind -
who's to say that
dreams and nightmares
aren't as real as
the here and now?

i wake up and he's dead - i wake up and he's alive...

Linda Hanson [Sandra Bullock] has a beautiful house, a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect, until the day she receives the devastating news that her husband Jim [Julian McMahon] has died in a car accident.

When she wakes up the next morning to find her husband alive and well, she assumes it was all a dream -

Or was it? Suddenly, her perfect life is turned upside down as she begins a desperate scramble to save her family and uncover the truth. Racing against time and fate, Linda will stop at nothing to discover the true meanings of reality and destiny -

- a great must-see film - it's been out a while but i don't tire of it - oh, and it's filmed in my hometown, shreveport louisiana -

10 BILLION BEATS - A GLOBAL INTENTION EXPERIMENT

http://www.10billionbeats.com/

the curse of edgar allen poe in delaware...

DEER PARK TAVERN
NEWARK, DELAWARE

This location was renovated several times and is supposedly where Edgar Allen Poe wrote "The Raven". On December 23, 1843, Poe lectured at the Academy and visited the Inn. As he was attempting to emerge from his carriage at the Inn, he was reputed to have fallen in the mud and was so upset that he put a curse on the building. Reported activity includes phantom sounds, smells and manipulations as if the bar were still open.

The site on which the Deer Park Tavern is built was previously occupied by the St. Patrick's Inn, which was destroyed by fire. There have been arguments as to whether the St. Patrick's Inn was indeed located on this spot, or across the street, but the consensus seems to favor the site of the present building. From 1747 to 1848 John Tobias, and then John Pritchard ran the inn. It thus acquired the nickname "Pritchard's." In the 1700s the St. Patrick's Inn was a favorite resting place for travelers passing through Newark.

In 1764, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon stayed at the inn with their team of surveyors. A folk account of their stay says that they were a jolly bunch who kept a tame bear for amusement and consumed large portions of peach and apricot brandy. The Mason-Dixon line was the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which became famous as the line of demarcation between free and slave states. Mason and Dixon were requested to survey a one and a half-mile section of the city border that was to form a corner near the site of the St. Patrick's Inn.

During the American Revolution, soldiers stayed at the inn and it has even been stated that George Washington spent the night there. Harriet Black Evans related this story: During a British invasion, Robert Warnock, who was a reputed wizard and a man feared by the townspeople, had a fight with Israel Pritchard and put a spell on the cattle that were pastured behind the inn. The next day, Mr. Pritchard found all the cattle and horses lying in a peculiar position. He called Mr. Warnock to the inn and demanded that the spell be removed. When Warnock agreed, the men walked outside to see all the livestock up and grazing as if nothing were wrong.



FOR A WALK THROUGH THIS AND OTHER INTERESTING DELAWARE HAUNTINGS:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.deldot.gov/information/media_gallery/2002/85th/images/old_state_house_dover_1930s-fit.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mlparanormal.com/dehaunt.htm&usg=__mwD6wUpnwNo12_6H-WI0XBBte4g=&h=607&w=531&sz=96&hl=en&start=20&sig2=XMxl4vD4xpcMYZ9S8mnnbQ&um=1&tbnid=ufUBxr5bVstRoM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstate%2Bstreet%2Bdover%2Bdelaware%2Bhaunted%2Bbuildings%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS333%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1&ei=AImpSrmEOcfglAeEgYXABg

the doctor is in...the stars...

A Zodiac illustration from a medical almanac, 1399.
The man’s pointing finger serves as a warning
against the powerful forces of the stars.

Ideas of astrology in medieval Europe were a long way from today's star sign horoscopes. Although some medieval astrologers were thought to be magicians, many were highly respected scholars. Astrologers believed that the movements of the stars influenced numerous things on earth, from the weather and the growth of crops to the personalities of new born babies and the inner workings of the human body.

Doctors often carried around special almanacs (or calendars) containing star charts, allowing them to check the positions of the stars before making a diagnosis. Many of these almanacs included pictures which helped to explain complicated ideas to patients. The picture above shows a 'zodiac man' from one of these almanacs.

Ancient studies of astrology were translated from Arabic to Latin in the 12^th and 13^th centuries and soon became a part of everyday medical practice in Europe. Doctors combined Galenic medicine (inherited from the Greek physiologist Galen - AD 129-216) with careful studies of the stars. By the end of the 1500s, physicians across Europe were required by law to calculate the position of the moon before carrying out complicated medical procedures, such as surgery or bleeding.

when the bell tolls...

over at gypsywomanworld, on september 6, i did a post on the tragic and untimely death of a young police officer, chad spicer, who is known to my family here in delaware - subsequently, we have learned of the ironies associated with his death in the line of duty - below are those tidbits as i know them:

the day he was shot and killed, his own patrol car had broken down and was in the shop - he had just gotten word that it was ready to be picked up when the call came in for a possible shooting at a local mcdonald's - another officer told him to jump into his patrol car and they would both take the call - which meant that officer spicer was riding "shotgun" with his buddy, the other officer, driving -

the police officers pursued the suspects and pulled up beside the car when they apprehended them - just as the officers were attempting to exit the patrol car, one of the [three] suspects, as he fled from his car, fired over his shoulder toward the officers - the shot hit officer spicer in the head before he could even draw his weapon fully - with his door open, he fell to the ground - a fragment of this same bullet exited the body of officer spicer, ricocheting and striking the other officer in the neck - while officer spicer did not survive, the other officer did and has now been released home from the hospital -

this happened at about 6:45 pm on tuesday - wednesday morning would have been the one year anniversary of his having been hired by the police department - officer spicer is the first and only officer of the georgetown police department to have been killed in the line of duty -

for the services of officer spicer, it is reported that thousands of police officers from as many as 100 law enforcement agencies across the united states came to pay their respects -

the many of me...

there is not just one of me
but many for to see
i have lived not just one time
but many have been mine
i will perchance be with you again
for there be many more to attain

a drop of life...

a drop in the ocean partakes
of the greatness of its parent -
although it is unconscious of it -
but it is dried up as soon as
it enters upon an
existence independent
of the ocean...
life
is a
mere
bubble

to simply simplify...

As you simplify your life,
the laws of the universe
will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.

the butterfly dream...

"Once upon a time,
I dreamt I was a butterfly,
flittering hither and thither,
to all intents and purposes
a butterfly...
suddenly I awoke...
Now I do not know whether
I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly
dreaming I am a man."

Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical summit of chinese thought - his name is sometimes spelled Chuang Tsu, Chuang Tzu, Zhuang Tze, Chouang-Dsi, Chuang Tse, Chuangtze or – in English – Master Chuang.

the big balloon in the sky...

it is the night of the full moon
big golden white balloon
covered in billowy blankets all too soon

a touch of green...

*
touch of green
just for show
firey sun
all aglow
life
to us
does
bestow

the answer is...

know
thyself...

my link to your link...

Reality

cannot
be found
except in

One single source,

because of the

interconnection
of all things
with one another.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Images/cosmology/human-space-universe-cosmos.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.spaceandmotion.com/cosmos-society-human-cosmology.htm&usg=__bYdwsRrOk3V1pxRgt3fzQl3ixx4=&h=350&w=533&sz=15&hl=en&start=3&sig2=NEOMfHXXiK9m17anT6n8wA&um=1&tbnid=RR7uRQO_Gi6zyM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhuman-space-universe%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS333%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=A9KeSqjlPJOZlAf1xcz1DA

ADDENDUM TO THE SAM COOKE POST BELOW...

for those interested in my SAM COOKE post below, please read the comment sent me by his great nephew, ERIK GREENE - Mr. Greene was kind enough to include several references regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of his uncle - please do follow his links for information not otherwise available - as i said in my response to mr. greene's comment, i do not know why i was so compelled to write of his uncle, only that i was -

http://www.ourunclesam.com/home.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://innthebasement.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/erik-greene.jpg&imgrefurl=http://innthebasement.com/index.php/inn-the-basement-exclusive-interview-with-erik-greene/&usg=__FLXAJZ5DPVXXeHAaRu_Egu22knM=&h=260&w=175&sz=28&hl=en&start=3&sig2=bIczz1LrW2cPVeVd0qTzlw&um=1&tbnid=dT46fEinsZq3fM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=75&prev=/images%3Fq%3DERIK%2BGREENE%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=lZKeSsC9H42jmQeLuJykAw

the pond...

I often think that we are...swimming contentedly...
We live out our lives in our own "pond,"
confident that our universe consists of
only the familiar and the visible.
We smugly refuse to admit that
parallel universes or dimensions
can exist next to ours...

Hyperspace : A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension

http://www.gaia.com/quotes/topics/parallel+dimensions#ixzz0PtASBWQB
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Images/cosmology/human-space-universe-cosmos.jpg
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/cosmos-society-human-cosmology.htm

in his dreams...a change is gonna come...

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come,
oh yes it will...

in the midst of the 1960's civil unrest in this country, change was something sought by many of us - and the music world attempted to initiate this change by bringing about awareness in the universal language of music - it was the time of the civil rights movement - but not much was moving politically or legally -

a few days ago i was reminded again of the story of the death of the great musician SAM COOKE - you know, his death was under more than mysterious circumstances and remains a mystery today - below are several links which outline comprehensively the chronology of these tragic days and the event of sam's untimely death -

but my story here has to do not with those mysterious circumstances, but rather with the feelings of sam and others close to him right before his death - feelings associated particularly with the new song of sam's - a few months earlier, sam had heard bob dylan perform "blowing in the wind" - he was disturbed that a song carrying such a powerful message had not been written by a black man and he vowed to "do something" himself -

and so he did - he wrote "a change is gonna come" - however, sam told friends he didn't know how he came about writing the song - "it was like nothing he had ever done - as if it was someone else's - as if it had come to him in a dream" -

and then, there was a premonition attached to it - according to several people close to him, including bobby womack and jw alexander, sam spoke to them of this when he asked for their feedback upon performing the song for them - there was a sense of "death" - a sense that "somebody died, something creepy, something's going on", "something bad was going to happen" - to which sam "gloomily" agreed - and said that he would never perform this song in public - [actually, he did perform it live before his death, but only a few times] -

shortly after recording his song, on december 11, 1964, at the young age of 33, sam cooke was shot and killed in a two-bit motel - the song was not released until after his death - not only did sam cooke die a tragic untimely death, just months prior to his own death, his infant son was drowned in his home swimming pool -

forty-four [44] years later, on November 4, 2008, the first African-American President of the United States, Barack Obama, quoted from Sam's last song at Grant Park in Chicago -

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/nov/20/popandrock.urban1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke