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Thursday, July 20, 2017.  It has been raining here for hours, a deeply soaking New Mexico monsoon rain.  I am living just south of the first designated national wilderness.  I can see the outline of the beginning of the mountains to the north from my little front porch of this 120 year old adobe house I am renting here.  Today I watched the great storm clouds of afternoon coming south toward me, bolts of lightning seeming to march down the streets of town.

Miracles!

I am beginning to heal here and I am grateful for yet another segment of my life, so different from others in many ways.  I can walk just two blocks to find people in shops and on the streets to have conversations with.  Today I spoke with many people and most often I hear what I want to hear – talk about hope.

Interesting to me is what seems to be the fact that while the majority of people I talk to begin by telling me they have no real hope for the world, it doesn’t take long for me to hear what they are really saying.  People seem to be losing touch with what hope might actually even mean.

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Every once in a while I encounter angry people.  I don’t visit very long with such people, but I hear their anger.  I can detect what I can “the hard edges” to these people.  I am, rather, searching for the people with “soft edges” to talk with.  I am always listening for the opportunity to point out hope is always with us as a species.  I think we need to know this.

What we need to know, if my worldview, is that together we can begin to TALK with one another about what really matters in the world, and together we can learn how to make different choices for a better world for all.  I think we are mostly doing this as individuals – yet I don’t think we recognize this about ourselves.

I believe we need to!

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Today I heard about a storyteller opportunity in New Mexico, and I am thrilled to apply!  You can read the outline of what this project is about HERE.  What is MY connection both to the “counterculture” of the 60s and 70s AND to New Mexico?

I will need to think deeply about this – but it’s exciting to me!  These are the questions I will need to write answers to:

*Tell us a little about yourself. (500 words maximum) –

*Tell us about a social or political issue you are particularly interested in seeing change today and how you are involved. (500 words maximum)

*Tell us how you identify with the term “counterculture.” (500 words maximum)

* Tell us what connects you to New Mexico, your community and what compels you to live here. (500 words maximum)

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I figure I qualify for SOMETHING relevant to this project!  I can’t be the ONLY person who cried as if my soul was bleeding tears ALL the way through my watching of the movie Forrest Gump!  How does that kind of deep sadness, a profound aspect of the Baby Boomer psyche, connect to my deepest connection to and love for the wilderness, my total love of the creative process, my deep commitment to a spiritual healing of the human race and therefore of the planet, and my profound belief that moving forward the human race will not only be HEALING the trauma that has accumulated for us throughout our history, but will be ENDING IT?

And STORYTELLING?

Oh WOW!  Don’t even get me started!

Well not tonight, anyway.  Tomorrow I will write my answers to those questions in the application for consideration as one of the ten people to be selected.  I really am curious to see what I will say!

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Healing our personal and our collective life narrative doesn’t end with us.  Our healing reaches forward further than we can begin to imagine!

One of the things I am out on the streets finding people to talk to about has to do with a strong idea I have to “create” two time capsules – one 50 year one and one 100 year one – to be held (I finalized this stage today) but this town’s museum.

These capsules are about more than hope.  Hope has to be part of our organic living process as human beings.  Hope is intimately tied to ACTION – to putting our highest and most practical ideas into action – together – all of our lives.

THIS is the process that will collectively create the world that the people who open these capsules will be living in.  It is this entire process that I am trying to become crystal clear about….

So that I KNOW what I am inviting people to be a part of.

Right now I am thinking the 50 year capsule will be dedicated to artwork, poems, words created by those (probably) under the age of 25.  Those people might still be around when THIS capsule is opened.

The other capsule?  I am not sure yet – I will keep you posted!  This isn’t about what any of us want individually.  Quality of life is created by the actions of ALL of us.  We need to become empowered enough to realize that if we think about it, the life we might write about to put in a time capsule to be opened 5 generations from now is most likely one that is BETTER than the life currently lived by the over 7.5 billion people sharing this planet with us right now.

HOW are we going to BEHAVE – ACT – to create this better world?

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Here is my first book out in ebook format as it provides an outline of the conditions of my malevolent childhood.  Click here to view or purchase–

Story Without Words:  How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge.  A daring book – for daring readers – about a really tough subject.

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Tags: adult attachment disorders, adult reactive attachment disorder, anxiety disorders,borderline mother, borderline personality disorder, brain development, child abuse,depression,derealization, disorganized disoriented insecure attachment disorder,dissociation,dissociative identity disorder, empathy, infant abuse, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),protective factors, PTSD, resiliency, resiliency factors, risk factors, shame