52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 43 Chico: The Master Chef (Based On The Dreams Of A Future Master Chef.)
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe,. Jr.'s Ambidextrou Brain + Spiritual Mind
The new, shiny and sharp knife came swinging down hard, with a precise force and direction of the hand, but it created a sloppy mess anyway. Chico tightly held onto the clean knife for the first cut of the day because part of his work demanded that a knife be used. After dreaming about a knife in his hand, Chico woke up thinking about what kind of knifes would be needed for certain cutting during his long night at his job. Long before he ever picked up a knife for the needed shredding, cutting, slicing and dicing, he had prepared his mind for the very careful use of the knife for his life’s speciality. A knife in the right hand can help create moments of joy for all who reap its benefits.
After a long day and night of handling knifes and other tools of his trade, Chico usually needed a good nights sleep, and it was in those dreams where he discovered many of the dreamy discoveries that made many people happy; when they were awake that is. People of many traits enjoyed his creations with a knife, even if they never dreamed about them.
Every night provided Chico with his passion of being a master chef. During the day of preparing gourmet meals for others to enjoy, Chico would use the knife to slice and dice so many kinds of food ingredients that he almost felt like a medical surgeon who uses an even sharper knife to cut the skin of a human to repair the human body. The physical surgeon cuts slowly and very carefully, while the master chef can cut faster then the eye can see.
After a long day and night of cutting up food for others, some meals important for rich and poor people alike, those individuals who demanded the best gourmet meals that money could buy. The master chef was not always so handy with a knife or with preparing food for the deserving palate. Chico was always really to cut anything that he needed for the day meal or the night meal, so if a sloppy mess got in the way, he would just grabbed another piece of fruit to slice and dice into evenly sliced squares. Chico actually knew the fruit was sloppy before his hand forced the knife down through the fruit, but every once in a while, he would play the game of cutting the sloppy fruit with a sharp knife, just for the fun of it.
As a youth, Chico had watched his uncle slice and dice fruit and vegetables much slower than any master chef would slice and dice food. Chico’s uncle was extremely happy to simply cut the fruit or meat or whatever ingredients were needed for the simple meal of the day. He rarely created a sloppy mess with his knife because he never bought a sloppy fruit at the local grocery store. Chico’s uncle would bring Chico shopping with him, teaching him how to purchase fruit and meat and other food ingredients. They would then go home together for the real fun of the day.
Chico would watch his uncle smile as he turned the stove top’s black plastic knob. Turning up the stove top’s white hot flame to a certain height would bring a smile to Chico’s uncle’s face, just as if he was a scientist in a lab who was turning up the flame for a chemistry experiment. The uncle would place a heavy and thick steel water filled pot onto the stove top, over the white hot flame to begin heating the water for the boiling process. Such a simple act for the preparation of the best beef stew or soup in his town. Chico had watched his uncle experiment with so many kinds of ingredients for stew and soup, and then take careful notes too, that Chico felt he was learning from a master chef.
And then, in no specific order, Chico’s uncle would begin throwing the needed ingredients into the simmering water to create a great family stew. Usually, he would begin by slicing up a slab of beef into odd looking squares, to throw them into the pot’s simmering water. In no specific order, the next ingredients to be sliced up into imperfect squares were the potatoes, carrots, beans, celery, tomatoes, macaroni or noodles, and other juicy ingredients into the simmering water. Each ingredient was perfect all by itself, with some butter, but combined together; well it was like a meal made in heaven. Just to add a taste of heavenly delight into the already perfect stew, the uncle would add some flour, salt and pepper, and a pinch of a few or more spices from around the world into the simmering water. To top that all off, just for that added special touch, the uncle would then add an ounce or two of wine.
The now sizzling and spicy hot steam would raise up into the air like a floating spirit who needed the love of people before floating away towards the stars high above earth. The fizzing steam would sound off as if filled the exact sense of smell, long before the food ever entered into a human’s mouth, the brain would be filled with the spirit of the food, as the tasty spirit danced around in circles within the enclosed kitchen; even as it filled the noses of all animals who possessed a nose to smell with. Their family dog loved smelling the dancing spirit too. Still floating up into the air, through the cracks in the walls, it slowly snuck out of the kitchen for all to smell the hopeful dream of a great stew.
Each tasty stew or meal would be a little different than the night before, but that was ok with everyone because they all knew of the uncle’s love for cooking. They trusted him with food. As with many families, the big daily meal is the only time when family members get to talk with each other. They are forced to sit down and look at each other at the faces, into the eyes, to ask questions, laugh, become angry, to be serious, or to be quiet. For some people, the evening meal may be the only moment for their rest of their busy day, so that meal should be as enjoyable as humanly possible.
Chico had gone to grade school and highschool, but they offered no culinary classes or courses for food preparation. Chico knew enough not to ask his parents to send him to culinary school, so he had learned to wait. He knew that they could not afford it, nor would they understand his desire to become a master chef. His parents worked in the fields and farm as a common labor, while his mom worked in a hotel as a common cleaner upper.
Chico’s parents worked all day, so they were happy to have Chico’s uncle preparing food for them and the family. After Chico’s dad picked up Chico’s mom, they would drive home knowing that the cooking uncle and their son would be preparing the family meal. The uncle had been a chef for most of his life, but now he was retired; except for the family meal. There was a special feeling the uncle received when he watched people eat his food. It seemed the only way he could give pleasure to people’s minds, and sometimes their lives. He could not give pleasures to people in any other way. He could not play the piano or the violin, nor could he play sports or write stories for people to read. But in the old days of millions of years of human tradition, when fast food restaurants did not exist, hungry people would hunt and gather and cook together for the survival of the human race. But now, the modern day human race can enjoy the simple pleasures of eating delicious food without so much trouble and bother.
As a young boy, Chico never knew about the history of his people, but he did unknowingly learn something about the food of his culture; food besides the stew. But later, as he grew older and wiser, he began to read more about food, and as he visited the many restaurants in his hometown and those from around the world. He realized that the food business is not only huge, but it was also very diversified. Every culture had its own culinary history. The Mexicans have their Mexican food, the Chinese have their Chinese food, the Italian’s have their Italian food, the French have their French food, the Russians have their Russian food, the Japanese have their Japanese food, the Africans, Indians, and every other cultures all have their specific recipes. Of course, Americans can eat all of those foods in one American city or another. America’s foods from around the world! How could the simple concept of cooking and eating be so complex? though Chico.
The isolated young Chico had not known that many children grew up never knowing what they wanted to for their employment, but Chico always knew that he wanted to become a master chef for a grand restaurant; and maybe to own his own restaurant one day. He did not know or care about the other ways to earn money, he only knew that if he had ever obtained the culinary mastery that his uncle had obtained, he would make many people happy. ‘What could be better than that!’ thought Chico. Chico would watch his uncle’s face lit up with joy when he knew everyone loved their meal, his homemade special meal for his beloved family.
Chico guessed that his uncle was a happy man, and it seemed only natural that maybe his uncle had discovered some secret for obtaining some degree of happiness in human life. The uncle never paid for any of the food, nor did he ever get financially rewarded for this food preparation. He was simply happy seeing his hardworking kinsfolk chomping down the food and loving every minute of it.
Chico realized that if he could make people happy by cooking for them, that might be a nice life. He started going to restaurants, testing their foods, trying to guess how they made the food, which ingredients were in the foods, the oven’s temperate, the time for cooking, how the food could be improved with new ingredients and combinations. Chico soon realized that every restaurant had its recipes for creating food. It became quite an adventure to take a ride to a new city just to visit a new restaurant in order to eat and to explore its culinary experience. Chico was always searching for the most delicious meals. Chico slowly realized that he wanted to create the most exciting meals for people to eat, so he began taking notes whenever he visited a different restaurant.
Sometimes; more times then not, when the waiter would ask Chico if everything was ok, Chico would make a remark such as, ‘Not bad, but may I speak to the master chef. The waiter would usually state, ‘Let me see if the master chef is available for you.’ The waiter would turn around and leave the dinning hall. Of course the master chef would have no inclination of Chico’s true desires to learn about how the master chef cooked the meal. The master chef could not guess that he was talking to a master chef in making. Usually he would only think that a person was going to complain about the meal or make a complement about the meal. Rarely would a person ever ask how the meal was created and made. But whenever the master chef walked up to Chico, he would always hear the same kind of questions, ‘How did you make the food? What was the order of the food? What kinds of spices, and special ingredients did you use? And last, but never least, Chico would always request for any individual cooking tips from the master chef.
The master chef or even a lower leveled chef would always be surprised by such questions. So they would always ask the young Chico why he was asking all of these questions. Chico would always state that he loved learning about food and that he was preparing to go to culinary school, so he wanted a jump-start before he ever stepped into a culinary school. Every once in a while, when the master chef was a kind hearted man who wanted to teach, to show, and to instruct an aspiring master chef, the master chef would ask Chico if he wanted to visit the kitchen.
The master chef would lead Chico into the kitchen as any proud master chef would. Chico would look around, surveying the kitchen’s layout. He would look where the pots and pans were located and where the knifes were placed and if the stove was located next to the sink. Chico would make a mental note on how large the sink was and if the tables were small or large and if they were by the wall or in the center of the kitchen. He would analyze the layout of the kitchen, to see if chefs would be able to easily move around the kitchen and its stoves, sinks, and tables as they were preparing the food. Chico was always amazed that there was usually never a window where the chefs would be able to observe the restaurant’s diners eating any chef’s rewarding meal.
Finally, after his last day of high school, Chico knew that he had to have a plan to become a master chief. He knew that he have to attend a culinary school so he could learn all he needed to become a professional licenced chef. He knew that he would have to take and past many tests in order to obtain a culinary licence. There was so much to learn, but Chico finally passed all of the required tests to obtain a chef’s license. Chico intently listened to the master chef instructors and he studied all of the books and recipes and he passed many culinary tests. For one assignment, all culinary students had to prepare an original recipe and cook it. It was an official contest for all students.
Chico prepared an original sweeten chicken, topped with a mellowed sweeten pineapple sauce. Chico had studied the international culinary concept of the sweeten chicken with the sweeten pineapple sauce, but usually he found the cooked product way to sweet, or a sour sweet sauce that did not add spice to the already sweeten chicken. Then there was the problem of frying the chicken so to much in cheap oil only left the chicken coated with a yucky coating that only hid the moist chicken’s favor. Of course, Chico solved those problems with his special sweeten chicken with sweet pineapple sauce, so he won the contest and the admiration of both teachers and students alike.
Chico’s first job was like that of many newly licensed chefs; he was going to be an apprentice for an established master chef. When he applied at a fancy restaurant for his first real job as an apprentice chef, he noticed the very expensive colorful carpet, and chairs and tables, and lighting, and the walls, and the ceiling, and the sound systems, along with the big bar. But he knew that in the end, all of the material glitter was not the reason why people would walk into the restaurant and then spend their money. In the end, they wanted the tastiest food to satisfy their mental desires for gourmet cuisine.
Chico thought that he was prepared for his first day as an apprentice chef, but was he in for a surprise. The master chef hired Chico because he saw the gleam and desire in his eyes. The master chef always gave a chance to a young culinary dreamers, or those who desired to create dishes and meals that would send people into a high dinning heaven. The master chef definitely knew that most people never desired to become a chef, to cook for others. He also knew that most people would not spend money on gourmet food because most people did not enjoy the hunt of entering a new restaurant to eat strange foods. The master chef knew that most of the population were not concerned with becoming a food and drink connoisseur, with a discerning palate for un ordinary foods and drinks. There are people who love good food and drink to experience a certain heaven on earth.
Unlike his uncle, the head chef always wore white pants and shirt and even a white hat. Even when he interviewed Chico, the head chef was wearing his clean white clothes. They were clean because the head chef had not started preparing his fancy meals for the day. Soon enough, after many years of dedicated service and devotion to preparing and cooking meals for food connoisseurs or just plain people were learning to dine outside their houses, Chico was able to remember the smiles on people who loved to eat his food.
As many people know, dinning outside the home has its own proper etiquette and mannerisms. This is especially noticeable when a diner is dinning out at a restaurant of a different culture. But even so, to expect to enjoy the dinning experience by ignoring and / or being rude to the waiters and waitresses as if they were only slaves for the diner only shows the waiters and waitresses the unsophisticated nature of the rude and uncivilized person.
Chico finally was finally promoted to assistant chef. There he leaned more about the culinary cooking business. He began to learn about how to order and purchase food from food suppliers and he learned some basic economics of making a profit for the kitchen and for the restaurant. Just for the fun of it, on his off time, he began watching the futures markets so he might be able to predict when many food’ s prices; oranges and other fruit, tea, coffee, wine, and chocolate, etc., so he could help change the menus prices if the master chef or the restaurant owner needed to adjust the meals prices.
One night Chico saw unexpected surprise in the dinning room of the restaurant. His brother and wife were eating out for a special occasion. It was their wedding anniversary, but they had also brought their two children with them. Chico exited the kitchen to greet his brother and his family. After a few handshakes and hugs, Chico pulled up a chair and the started to chat with his relatives. After catching on small talk and family business, Chico heard his nephew blurt out, ‘What do you do here uncle?’
Chico laughed out loud before he proudly and joyfully stated, ‘I am the soon to be master chef.’ And because he trusted his family, he said to them, ‘I have a surprise for all of you. I have written a cookbook with my special recipes that I have developed over the many decades of studying cooking. I have dedicated the book to my uncle, who was the first person to inspire me to become a master culinary chef.’ He unwrapped a first edition from the white cloth and presented it as a signed gift to his brother. His speechless brother took the cookbook and looked at the cover. It was Chico’s smiling face in his kitchen creating delicious meals for many people from around the world.
Everyone congratulated Chico. He stood up just before his nephew asked, ‘Can I see the kitchen?’ Everyone laughed. ‘Sure! Why not responded Chico. ‘When everyone is finished with your meals, just have the waiter get me and I will show the kitchen to all of you.’ Chico stood up and he returned to the kitchen. He looked around and he was ready to show his nephew a few tricks of the trade. After an hour, the waiter waved at Chico, indicating that his relatives were ready to visit the kitchen. Chico walked to the kitchen’s door and he waved them into the kitchen. He watched as his nephew look around the huge kitchen, exploring with the young eyes and mind of an adventurous soul, the soul of a child and the eyes of a future master chef.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
A Human and Dog Friendship
A great lecture at: http://tastethewind.blogspot.com/2010/12/major-problems-for-mankind.html
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 42 * A Human and Dog Friendship: (Based On A True Story)
This story is a Human and Dog tale that takes place between countless humans and dogs.
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind
Human was in a painfully decisive moment of her life, but she would learn a very important life lesson. Many people find many strange moments in their lives, at one time or another. Those agonizing moments when a person has to make an unavoidable decision, or having a loved one suffer for the reminder of their lives. She was about to learn that the hardest decisions might be the most painful; but there is an old quote, "Whatever does not kill you, will only make you stronger."
Long ago, Human had studied at an upstate college. It was an easy decision for Human because she wanted to learn about money and business as fast as possible. She wanted to learn about business and the money world as far as any business course or teacher could teach her. All the while, she lived in a CEO’s house as a babysitter to the house and its two oversized dogs. When the owners were away, traveling as CEOs and their families sometimes do, Human would have to feed the dogs their dog food and take them for a walk in under New York’s ever changing skies.
The two huge dogs gave Human’s arms as great workout as the dogs were always pulling to the right and to the left; so they could sniff for the smells on the New York’s four seasonal ground. With each pull by the two dogs, Human would wondered what they were so excited about as they searched and searched for new scents.
When Human graduated from the Upstate New York college, she was prepared to seek her financial fortunes as many college students do; so she decided to move to the big city of New York, to New York City. With some basic book knowledge of business and the money world, she was ready to explore the business world away from parents and family and highschool teachers and college professors. She could smell the money in New York City’s manhattan’s financial distract, so it was off to the big city to try her luck at making money. If other people could make money, so could she, she once thought to herself. Even before she left college, she could smell the need to make lots of money. She wanted to start a family one day, and money seemed like a needed commodity for her family’s needs and wants; because she always knew that she wanted the best for her children.
New York City seemed to be calling her name, just as it does to so many dreamers of money; so it was off to the Big Apple she went. New York City is only six to seven hours away from her upstate hometown, so it was very easy to hop into her car and drive on upstate’s country and roads highways, with the tall trees on either side of the road to remind her of Upstate New York. Soon enough, the tallest of trees would be replaced with the tallest of skyscrapers in New York City. The dreamy highways led directly to New York City’s tall buildings, which made the richest of humans look like tiny little bugs, if viewed from the top of any building. But the big stock and bond brokerage firms are different because no matter how tiny a human may seem from the tallest building, a million bucks is still a million bucks. Money is still money.
Nevertheless, in the world of business and money, there are few moments for self-reflection or even reflecting on life’s important lessons, or even realizing life’s true treasures. It can be safely stated that most people do not even ponder their lives or even life’s big questions until those important issues are thrown at them in one form or another. Human and many others were learning about the markets ups and downs, and how to survive in the big city, with its rush here and rush there mentality. Yellow taxis rushing, people rushing, the subways rushing, bikers rushing, the world of money rushing around the globe in seconds; money rushing in and out of people’s pockets even faster.
Human decided to become a stockbroker at a safe American financial institution. After applying, she was quickly accepted into the world of money and high finance. Human’s first boss had a special assignment for Human. As she was studying for the big Series 7 Exam, (General Securities Representative Exam, NASD) she would have to learn many of the supporting jobs of the office. Jobs such as how to answer phones; how to talk to business men who never joked about anything; how to fix the copy machine; how to take buy and sell orders from the long ago established brokers; how to make an endless amount of cold calls to build up a client base, how to take no for an answer; how to get the morning coffee and donuts for a boss whose only goal was to make as much money in one day as was humanly possible. It mattered not what the surrounding details were that filled the atmosphere, it was all about living in the world of greed for more money. Money, money, money!
Learning about money was easy for Human, ever since she had walked into the big brokerage firm. It was fun too. Everyone had only one goal on their minds, making money in one form or another. After a few months of studying and preparing for the day long Series 7 Exam, she was ready to take the seven hour long exam to prove that she knew what the stock market is, what stocks and bonds are, how to calculate the numbers, what the laws are, and more. With each and every question, she needed to decide on the proper answer to pass the test. She pasted that test and then she had to take the Series 65 Exam, but that was only a couple of hours, if that long of a test. After becoming a licensed stockbroker, there were decisions to make everyday and every minute, and sometimes in seconds. Researching a stock; and buying or selling a stock. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Sometimes those decisions were made for Human, while at other times, she had to make them. The stock market seemed to be a universe of decisions, yet each individual earthly life is a universe of decisions too.
For years, Human was happy in the stockbroker business, but she grew bored of the everyday life of office politics and greed for money in a man’s world, so it was time for a change. There was no love in the real of money, just love of money, and Human’s heart was somewhere else. Human decided to move away from the Big Apple. It was off to law school she went. She decided she needed a change of boring men who cared little for some of life’s simple pleasures, so she drove on the countryside highways once again, away from the New York City to Ohio; to Ohio State University. It just so happen, her college sweetheart Jerry was studying at Ohio State University too. A real life family of love would soon be a family was in the making.
Her first day on campus was wild. Instead of men and ladies in dark business suits, there were thousands of college aged students wearing whatever they felt like wearing. Stepping back into time, Human started studying law. Her goal was probate law and financial law for estates. Away from New York’s brokerage houses, she began to feel as if she was on a vacation, until her first day in law school. The only person wearing a dark business suit was the lawyer / professor, who was all business about law. The study of law seemed to be more important than the study money; since without laws of the land, the realm of money would be in total chaos. So Human began reading and studying the law books as all law students do; by reading case after case of legal decisions, past tests and writing papers and answering questions and learning how to think like a lawyer.
After law school, and passing the Bar Exam, Human and her college sweetheart returned to their upstate college town to get married and to start to start a family. There were so many decisions to make: which wedding dress to wear, who to invite to the wedding, where to hold the wedding, which house to purchase, which new family car and van to purchase, what to name the new babies that would soon be arriving. But first, what to name the two dogs that were the cutest little puppies Human had ever seen. Puppies are not allowed on Wall Street, but they are always welcomed in a family of love.
Thinking that a couple of pet dogs would be a nice way to start her family, Human had found two tiny puppies who needed a good home. They introduced themselves by sniffing at Human’s hands. Human looked in her husband’s eyes and her husband could not help but smile at her. Into a box they went and Human brought them home. As any caring mother would care for her little ‘babies,’ Human started the natural care giving and attention that all real mothers of either sex give to their children. The two puppies needed food and clean water every day, a bath when needed, a backyard to play in, rubber balls and bones and other dog goodies too, along with the best medical care that money could buy. She named them Baxter and Graci, two modern day dogs.
The tiny Baxter and Graci grew bigger and stronger with each meal that Human feed them and with each step of that daily walk that Human provided for them. Baxter and Graci just loved the moment when they were picked up and bought to their new home, a two story house with plenty of rooms to explore; with plenty of sounds and smells and looking and searching and resting too.
Everyday, Baxter but especially Graci would wake up to sneak a few licks on Human’s sleeping face, just to remind her that she was their mommy, even if she was a human mommy. When their human mommy stepped out of bed, they all knew that the day would be fulled with fun and excitement in each and every room of the house; and even a possible car ride too. As everyone hopped out of the huge bed, Baxter and Graci followed Human as they walked from one room to another. They would smell each room in a way that their human mommy could never imagine. Each room and car ride to another house brought new and different smells; some would state the smells of life itself.
The bedroom was the first room, and then possibly the bathroom, but then the greatest of all smelly rooms was the long awaited kitchen. Their tiny doggie footsteps would waggle along until they reached the living room and then the kitchen. Wow, was that fun. The boring clean morning air being awaken by the aroma of the coffee brewing, buttered toast, and the butter and eggs in the frying pan, and of course the television was turned on and a radio with the morning news and music playing. Nothing could compare to the morning kitchen, unless it was the evening or holiday kitchen. Baxter and Graci soon learned about Thanksgiving and its special kitchen smells. Talk about dog heaven! Of course, Baxter and Graci would get their share of meat and foodstuff.
In no short order, two new smells entered the house. Baxter and Graci looked at the two babies with a different kind of wonderment, and a few licks too. Baxter and Graci also learned the babies new names, Olivia and Domanic. After a months of the milk bottle, Human was feeding Olivia and Domanic the best baby food money could buy. Soon enough, as all babies do, they grew bigger and stronger. Soon enough, Human was taking the Olivia and Domanic and Baxter and Graci for daily walks around their city blocks, during all four seasons of the year. The springtime with its new life, the summertime with its heat, the autumn with its changing tree colors and cool air, the wintertime with its white snow and freezing ice.
Everyone grew older together, as some families do. Hundreds of thousands of moments of eating together, watching television together, driving around to visit relatives together, even playing in the snow together. With no thought about the future, everyday was a blessing; almost like a dream of peace and harmony. Human and her family were really lucky to be together, as a loving family. But just as the change of seasons, arrives changes in life, for all animals on planet earth.
After thirteen years of being alive, Baxter and Graci were not puppies anymore. Human had brought Baxter and Graci to their veterinarian for their yearly checkup. Human, Domanica and Olivia sat in the waiting room, silently waiting for the veterinarian to return with their two family members. When he did return, his eyes and soft voice said it all. Medical words abound with reasons for the final needle that awaited Baxter and Graci, but it was not to happen that day.
Human realized that Baxter and Graci were getting older, but time had passed by so fast. How could it be that Baxter and Graci would not live forever. But Human looked into their eyes, only to see what Baxter and Graci already knew too, that their years, if not their months, were numbered. The smell of sadness began to fill Human’s motherly soul. Her husband knew it too, but how would they explain the situation to children, Domanic and Olivia? How to deal with the age old question of death?
Baxter and Graci felt their bodies ailing too. They also knew that they were not puppies anymore, even if their puppy spirit would live forever in this universe or the next one. Those human puppy days were long gone. As their memories were thinking about the past, they wished that they could thank Human and her husband Dominica and Olivia for the past thirteen years of a good life. But they could not speak English, but they could understand that their earthly lives were coming to a final end. They were wishing that their bodies were not ailing, but they also knew that they did feel the urge to rest, for a long time. They began to hear the sound of angels.
It has been stated that dog’s nose can smell a thousand times more than a human’s nose, so what about smelling the smells of a life after life. Is it possible that dogs and other creatures know something about the afterlife long before they leave planet earth? After all, even though humans see a physical dog, the Infinite Mind or Intelligence called God only sees the spiritual image and deathless nature of all living creatures, even if they only seem to be dogs or animals.
Somehow, in some way, angels must carry our loving pets over from this life to the next life, even if humans see it not!
As the days wore on, Human’s job lingered on, as a probate lawyer, meeting clients to prepare their legal papers such as wills and other probate legal and financial papers for her clients who were also preparing for their last human breath. After so many years of filling out legal paperwork for clients, the task of preparing the legal papers for her clients seen a mighty chore at times. But slowly she started to see her job in a different light, even within the dryness of the legal office. Everyday seemed to be as normal and safe as every other day in her employment as a probate attorney. But now, everyday was becoming a bigger and bigger blessing to enjoy the company of Baxter’s and Graci’s shadows.
But in the back of her mind, every time Human looked down to pet the beloved Baxter and Graci, she knew that the day, the moment would arrive when she would make the hardest decision in her life. The catch 22 of the decisive moment arrived when she did not want to see her beloved Baxter’s and Graci’s old bodies suffer anymore. She knew that one day she would give her permission to the veterinarian to stick a needle into the skin of her two kid dogs to send them to dog heaven.
Human would take the time to stare at Baxter and Graci with the question, ‘Well, when are we going to do it? Simultaneously, she would glare at Dom and Olivia, her own human children, to wonder how she would explain to them that Baxter and Graci’s earthly lives would soon be over, finished, ended, gone forever from planet earth, as seemingly solid creatures But of course, there was more to it than that. Every time she saw the eyes of Baxter and Graci, she also saw the eyes of Olivia and Domanic.
The mother / lawyer knew the ways and dangers of the world. Her two pet dogs were like her children, but her children were her children. From the day they were born from her womb, she had fed them, clean and bathe them, clothed them, watched television with them, sang songs to them, and helped them learn about life as far as a human mother could teach the lessons of life to her children.
Nevertheless, the Human’s motherly instinct faced one of the hardest lessons of life, giving permission for the doggie doctor to stick the needle of death into her beloved dogs. To the outside observer, especially those people who had never owned a pet for any length of time, family pets may seem like lower creatures who have lived a good life. But the true pet owner truly knows different. When humans have cared for and loved a pet for so many years, the emotional attachment becomes a strong bond beyond words. Plus, the modern day dog is living in a modern day world too, and they must mentally learn and develop an emotional bond to their owners too. It can not be stopped.
After thirteen years of living the good life, after seeing her two beloved pets suffering more everyday, Human made the decision. She made the appointment with the veterinarian. She knew that the veterinarian knew the condition of Baxter and Graci, which made it somewhat easier for Human, the pet owner. Human knew that she needed to sit down with Olivia and Dom to have a heart to heart talk with them. Human tried not to get choked up as she stated to Olivia and Dom, ‘We need to say goodbye to Baxter and Graci.’
The tears started flowing from Human’s eyes as she could not believe she said the inevitable truth out loud. Immediately, tears flowed down the faces of Olivia and Dom too. They were copying their mommy, but they had too realized that Baxter and Graci were changing. Baxter and Graci waggled over to Human, Olivia, and Dom. They were wagging their tails as if to state, ‘It is ok. We know. It was a good life. Thanks for loving us.’ Everyone hugged Baxter and Graci because dogs do not cry at human’s problems dilemmas. In one real sense, they knew something more about eternal life than most humans. They could already began to smell their new afterlife.
Alone, Human brought Baxter and Graci to the veterinarian for the needle of death. She held onto and petted Baxter and Graci as she watched veterinarian stick that thin steel needle into Baxter’s and Graci’s bodies. Their eyes looked up towards Human’s eyes with a last thank you for a good life. Human held onto the back of their necks as she kissed them goodbye. Soon enough, Baxter and Graci closed their eyes to sleep forever. As if living in a bad dream, Human watched as her two doggie buddies disappeared into the dark doggie tunnel for their journey into the great beyond.
Human looked onto their lifeless bodies with the realization that a part of herself had died in that moment. A part of her earthly and human life, of her soul, was now forever gone. The veterinarian picked up Baxter and Graci and placed them into a cardboard box. He carried it to Human’s van and Human drove away in still silence.
Later on that day, Human and her husband and Olivia and Don drove together with the cardboard box. A tiny doggie funeral had been prepared for Baxter and Graci. They would be placed next to two other dogs, in the wooded and peaceful backyard of Human’s sister. Human placed their favorite doggie blankets and toys in the box. The short funeral happened without a trace of a smile or of a laugh. In the private moments of human’s earthly dreamlike somber moments, people can see their own mortality within the funeral of others. Yet, if they are smart, they will also start seeking for eternal life; instead of seeking only money if a world full of life and love.
After all was said and done, the real mourning would slowly creep into Human’s soul; Olivia’s and Dom’s and husband too. Returning to their house, everyone immediately noticed the stillness and silence of the house. Two dogs who had waggled and barked their way into the hearts and souls of mere mortal humans were now only a memory, but a powerful memory. A priceless memory that all of the money in the world could never buy.
The hearts of mere mortals who wished for the souls of immortals, if only within their hopeful dreams; because every hopeful human hopes for a sense of immortality. The voice of immortality filled the room with the memories of Baxter’s and Graci’s two wagging tails just as if they were still following Human into every room. Their physical shadows were not behind Human anymore. But that did not matter anymore because something more powerful had taken place. Human became increasingly aware of the increasingly enlarged flow of love from Baxter and Graci.
Human did not see it, but she felt it. She was feeling the love from Graci and Baxter as they started off in their new universe, free from their worn out bodies. Human was learning something about the deathless life and love that crosses over from one universe to another universe. Her spiritual heart lessened the pain of her human heart, healing the wounds of her hardest decision ever. Old habits never go away quickly or quietly. With every intention step, Human would turn her head downwards as if the Baxter or Graci were still following their human mother around the house. But with each downward turn towards the floor, Human could only feel the love of Baxter and Graci.
Within a day or two, Human thought she heard some barking in her backyard. So did Olivia and Domanic. They all ran outside to see what was there, but there were no dogs in the backyard. Human and Olivia and Domanic all looked up to see a half rainbow in the sky. Human moaned as she saw the surprise of her life. A cloud slowly took the shape of her dogs heads, as the first half of the rainbow.
The void of death is only for those who do not see beyond the pale gloom of the five physical senses. As all true spiritual seers spiritually know, the infinite spiritual senses of Soul overcomes the limited senses of the human brain’s limited perception of the universe. Baxter and Graci now belong to another universe, but their love will always be felt within the home of Human and her family.
SOME POEMS FOR DOG LOVERS
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here,
that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends,
so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine,
and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor;
those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again,
just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing;
they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together,
but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance.
His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers.
Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass,
his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet,
you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again.
The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head,
and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet,
so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
Stood Beside Your Bed Last Night
I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.
I could see that you were crying, you found it hard to sleep.
I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear.
"Its me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here"
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea.
You were thinking of the many times your hands reached down to me.
I was with you at the shops today, your arms were getting sore.
I want to take your parcels, I wished I could do more.
I was with you at my grave today, you tend it with such care.
I want to reassure you that I'm not lying there.
I walked with you towards the house as you fumbled for the key,
I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said "It's me".
You looked so very tired and then you sank into a chair,
I tried so hard to let you know that I was standing there.
Its possible for me to be so near you everyday,
to say to you with certainty "I never went away".
You sat there very quietly, then smiled,
I think you knew That in the stillness of that evening I was very close to you.
The day is over.... I smile and watch you yawning and say,
" Good Night, Sweet Dreams, God Bless, I'll see you in the morning".
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide
I'll rush to greet you and well stand together side by side.
I have so many things to show you, there's much for you to see.
Be patient, live your journey out; then come home and be with me.
-
Author Unknown-
DOG When God had made the earth and sky,
The flowers and the trees.
He then made all the animals,
The fish, the birds and bees.
And when at last He'd finished,
Not one was quite the same.
He said, "I'll walk this world of mine,
And give each one a name."
And so He traveled far and wide
And everywhere He went,
A little creature followed Him Until its strength was spent.
When all were named upon the earth
And in the sky and sea,
The little creature said,
"Dear Lord, There's not one left for me."
Kindly the Father said to him, "I've left you to the end.
I've turned my own name back to front
And called you dog, my friend
Author unknown...
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 42 * A Human and Dog Friendship: (Based On A True Story)
This story is a Human and Dog tale that takes place between countless humans and dogs.
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind
Human was in a painfully decisive moment of her life, but she would learn a very important life lesson. Many people find many strange moments in their lives, at one time or another. Those agonizing moments when a person has to make an unavoidable decision, or having a loved one suffer for the reminder of their lives. She was about to learn that the hardest decisions might be the most painful; but there is an old quote, "Whatever does not kill you, will only make you stronger."
Long ago, Human had studied at an upstate college. It was an easy decision for Human because she wanted to learn about money and business as fast as possible. She wanted to learn about business and the money world as far as any business course or teacher could teach her. All the while, she lived in a CEO’s house as a babysitter to the house and its two oversized dogs. When the owners were away, traveling as CEOs and their families sometimes do, Human would have to feed the dogs their dog food and take them for a walk in under New York’s ever changing skies.
The two huge dogs gave Human’s arms as great workout as the dogs were always pulling to the right and to the left; so they could sniff for the smells on the New York’s four seasonal ground. With each pull by the two dogs, Human would wondered what they were so excited about as they searched and searched for new scents.
When Human graduated from the Upstate New York college, she was prepared to seek her financial fortunes as many college students do; so she decided to move to the big city of New York, to New York City. With some basic book knowledge of business and the money world, she was ready to explore the business world away from parents and family and highschool teachers and college professors. She could smell the money in New York City’s manhattan’s financial distract, so it was off to the big city to try her luck at making money. If other people could make money, so could she, she once thought to herself. Even before she left college, she could smell the need to make lots of money. She wanted to start a family one day, and money seemed like a needed commodity for her family’s needs and wants; because she always knew that she wanted the best for her children.
New York City seemed to be calling her name, just as it does to so many dreamers of money; so it was off to the Big Apple she went. New York City is only six to seven hours away from her upstate hometown, so it was very easy to hop into her car and drive on upstate’s country and roads highways, with the tall trees on either side of the road to remind her of Upstate New York. Soon enough, the tallest of trees would be replaced with the tallest of skyscrapers in New York City. The dreamy highways led directly to New York City’s tall buildings, which made the richest of humans look like tiny little bugs, if viewed from the top of any building. But the big stock and bond brokerage firms are different because no matter how tiny a human may seem from the tallest building, a million bucks is still a million bucks. Money is still money.
Nevertheless, in the world of business and money, there are few moments for self-reflection or even reflecting on life’s important lessons, or even realizing life’s true treasures. It can be safely stated that most people do not even ponder their lives or even life’s big questions until those important issues are thrown at them in one form or another. Human and many others were learning about the markets ups and downs, and how to survive in the big city, with its rush here and rush there mentality. Yellow taxis rushing, people rushing, the subways rushing, bikers rushing, the world of money rushing around the globe in seconds; money rushing in and out of people’s pockets even faster.
Human decided to become a stockbroker at a safe American financial institution. After applying, she was quickly accepted into the world of money and high finance. Human’s first boss had a special assignment for Human. As she was studying for the big Series 7 Exam, (General Securities Representative Exam, NASD) she would have to learn many of the supporting jobs of the office. Jobs such as how to answer phones; how to talk to business men who never joked about anything; how to fix the copy machine; how to take buy and sell orders from the long ago established brokers; how to make an endless amount of cold calls to build up a client base, how to take no for an answer; how to get the morning coffee and donuts for a boss whose only goal was to make as much money in one day as was humanly possible. It mattered not what the surrounding details were that filled the atmosphere, it was all about living in the world of greed for more money. Money, money, money!
Learning about money was easy for Human, ever since she had walked into the big brokerage firm. It was fun too. Everyone had only one goal on their minds, making money in one form or another. After a few months of studying and preparing for the day long Series 7 Exam, she was ready to take the seven hour long exam to prove that she knew what the stock market is, what stocks and bonds are, how to calculate the numbers, what the laws are, and more. With each and every question, she needed to decide on the proper answer to pass the test. She pasted that test and then she had to take the Series 65 Exam, but that was only a couple of hours, if that long of a test. After becoming a licensed stockbroker, there were decisions to make everyday and every minute, and sometimes in seconds. Researching a stock; and buying or selling a stock. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Sometimes those decisions were made for Human, while at other times, she had to make them. The stock market seemed to be a universe of decisions, yet each individual earthly life is a universe of decisions too.
For years, Human was happy in the stockbroker business, but she grew bored of the everyday life of office politics and greed for money in a man’s world, so it was time for a change. There was no love in the real of money, just love of money, and Human’s heart was somewhere else. Human decided to move away from the Big Apple. It was off to law school she went. She decided she needed a change of boring men who cared little for some of life’s simple pleasures, so she drove on the countryside highways once again, away from the New York City to Ohio; to Ohio State University. It just so happen, her college sweetheart Jerry was studying at Ohio State University too. A real life family of love would soon be a family was in the making.
Her first day on campus was wild. Instead of men and ladies in dark business suits, there were thousands of college aged students wearing whatever they felt like wearing. Stepping back into time, Human started studying law. Her goal was probate law and financial law for estates. Away from New York’s brokerage houses, she began to feel as if she was on a vacation, until her first day in law school. The only person wearing a dark business suit was the lawyer / professor, who was all business about law. The study of law seemed to be more important than the study money; since without laws of the land, the realm of money would be in total chaos. So Human began reading and studying the law books as all law students do; by reading case after case of legal decisions, past tests and writing papers and answering questions and learning how to think like a lawyer.
After law school, and passing the Bar Exam, Human and her college sweetheart returned to their upstate college town to get married and to start to start a family. There were so many decisions to make: which wedding dress to wear, who to invite to the wedding, where to hold the wedding, which house to purchase, which new family car and van to purchase, what to name the new babies that would soon be arriving. But first, what to name the two dogs that were the cutest little puppies Human had ever seen. Puppies are not allowed on Wall Street, but they are always welcomed in a family of love.
Thinking that a couple of pet dogs would be a nice way to start her family, Human had found two tiny puppies who needed a good home. They introduced themselves by sniffing at Human’s hands. Human looked in her husband’s eyes and her husband could not help but smile at her. Into a box they went and Human brought them home. As any caring mother would care for her little ‘babies,’ Human started the natural care giving and attention that all real mothers of either sex give to their children. The two puppies needed food and clean water every day, a bath when needed, a backyard to play in, rubber balls and bones and other dog goodies too, along with the best medical care that money could buy. She named them Baxter and Graci, two modern day dogs.
The tiny Baxter and Graci grew bigger and stronger with each meal that Human feed them and with each step of that daily walk that Human provided for them. Baxter and Graci just loved the moment when they were picked up and bought to their new home, a two story house with plenty of rooms to explore; with plenty of sounds and smells and looking and searching and resting too.
Everyday, Baxter but especially Graci would wake up to sneak a few licks on Human’s sleeping face, just to remind her that she was their mommy, even if she was a human mommy. When their human mommy stepped out of bed, they all knew that the day would be fulled with fun and excitement in each and every room of the house; and even a possible car ride too. As everyone hopped out of the huge bed, Baxter and Graci followed Human as they walked from one room to another. They would smell each room in a way that their human mommy could never imagine. Each room and car ride to another house brought new and different smells; some would state the smells of life itself.
The bedroom was the first room, and then possibly the bathroom, but then the greatest of all smelly rooms was the long awaited kitchen. Their tiny doggie footsteps would waggle along until they reached the living room and then the kitchen. Wow, was that fun. The boring clean morning air being awaken by the aroma of the coffee brewing, buttered toast, and the butter and eggs in the frying pan, and of course the television was turned on and a radio with the morning news and music playing. Nothing could compare to the morning kitchen, unless it was the evening or holiday kitchen. Baxter and Graci soon learned about Thanksgiving and its special kitchen smells. Talk about dog heaven! Of course, Baxter and Graci would get their share of meat and foodstuff.
In no short order, two new smells entered the house. Baxter and Graci looked at the two babies with a different kind of wonderment, and a few licks too. Baxter and Graci also learned the babies new names, Olivia and Domanic. After a months of the milk bottle, Human was feeding Olivia and Domanic the best baby food money could buy. Soon enough, as all babies do, they grew bigger and stronger. Soon enough, Human was taking the Olivia and Domanic and Baxter and Graci for daily walks around their city blocks, during all four seasons of the year. The springtime with its new life, the summertime with its heat, the autumn with its changing tree colors and cool air, the wintertime with its white snow and freezing ice.
Everyone grew older together, as some families do. Hundreds of thousands of moments of eating together, watching television together, driving around to visit relatives together, even playing in the snow together. With no thought about the future, everyday was a blessing; almost like a dream of peace and harmony. Human and her family were really lucky to be together, as a loving family. But just as the change of seasons, arrives changes in life, for all animals on planet earth.
After thirteen years of being alive, Baxter and Graci were not puppies anymore. Human had brought Baxter and Graci to their veterinarian for their yearly checkup. Human, Domanica and Olivia sat in the waiting room, silently waiting for the veterinarian to return with their two family members. When he did return, his eyes and soft voice said it all. Medical words abound with reasons for the final needle that awaited Baxter and Graci, but it was not to happen that day.
Human realized that Baxter and Graci were getting older, but time had passed by so fast. How could it be that Baxter and Graci would not live forever. But Human looked into their eyes, only to see what Baxter and Graci already knew too, that their years, if not their months, were numbered. The smell of sadness began to fill Human’s motherly soul. Her husband knew it too, but how would they explain the situation to children, Domanic and Olivia? How to deal with the age old question of death?
Baxter and Graci felt their bodies ailing too. They also knew that they were not puppies anymore, even if their puppy spirit would live forever in this universe or the next one. Those human puppy days were long gone. As their memories were thinking about the past, they wished that they could thank Human and her husband Dominica and Olivia for the past thirteen years of a good life. But they could not speak English, but they could understand that their earthly lives were coming to a final end. They were wishing that their bodies were not ailing, but they also knew that they did feel the urge to rest, for a long time. They began to hear the sound of angels.
It has been stated that dog’s nose can smell a thousand times more than a human’s nose, so what about smelling the smells of a life after life. Is it possible that dogs and other creatures know something about the afterlife long before they leave planet earth? After all, even though humans see a physical dog, the Infinite Mind or Intelligence called God only sees the spiritual image and deathless nature of all living creatures, even if they only seem to be dogs or animals.
Somehow, in some way, angels must carry our loving pets over from this life to the next life, even if humans see it not!
As the days wore on, Human’s job lingered on, as a probate lawyer, meeting clients to prepare their legal papers such as wills and other probate legal and financial papers for her clients who were also preparing for their last human breath. After so many years of filling out legal paperwork for clients, the task of preparing the legal papers for her clients seen a mighty chore at times. But slowly she started to see her job in a different light, even within the dryness of the legal office. Everyday seemed to be as normal and safe as every other day in her employment as a probate attorney. But now, everyday was becoming a bigger and bigger blessing to enjoy the company of Baxter’s and Graci’s shadows.
But in the back of her mind, every time Human looked down to pet the beloved Baxter and Graci, she knew that the day, the moment would arrive when she would make the hardest decision in her life. The catch 22 of the decisive moment arrived when she did not want to see her beloved Baxter’s and Graci’s old bodies suffer anymore. She knew that one day she would give her permission to the veterinarian to stick a needle into the skin of her two kid dogs to send them to dog heaven.
Human would take the time to stare at Baxter and Graci with the question, ‘Well, when are we going to do it? Simultaneously, she would glare at Dom and Olivia, her own human children, to wonder how she would explain to them that Baxter and Graci’s earthly lives would soon be over, finished, ended, gone forever from planet earth, as seemingly solid creatures But of course, there was more to it than that. Every time she saw the eyes of Baxter and Graci, she also saw the eyes of Olivia and Domanic.
The mother / lawyer knew the ways and dangers of the world. Her two pet dogs were like her children, but her children were her children. From the day they were born from her womb, she had fed them, clean and bathe them, clothed them, watched television with them, sang songs to them, and helped them learn about life as far as a human mother could teach the lessons of life to her children.
Nevertheless, the Human’s motherly instinct faced one of the hardest lessons of life, giving permission for the doggie doctor to stick the needle of death into her beloved dogs. To the outside observer, especially those people who had never owned a pet for any length of time, family pets may seem like lower creatures who have lived a good life. But the true pet owner truly knows different. When humans have cared for and loved a pet for so many years, the emotional attachment becomes a strong bond beyond words. Plus, the modern day dog is living in a modern day world too, and they must mentally learn and develop an emotional bond to their owners too. It can not be stopped.
After thirteen years of living the good life, after seeing her two beloved pets suffering more everyday, Human made the decision. She made the appointment with the veterinarian. She knew that the veterinarian knew the condition of Baxter and Graci, which made it somewhat easier for Human, the pet owner. Human knew that she needed to sit down with Olivia and Dom to have a heart to heart talk with them. Human tried not to get choked up as she stated to Olivia and Dom, ‘We need to say goodbye to Baxter and Graci.’
The tears started flowing from Human’s eyes as she could not believe she said the inevitable truth out loud. Immediately, tears flowed down the faces of Olivia and Dom too. They were copying their mommy, but they had too realized that Baxter and Graci were changing. Baxter and Graci waggled over to Human, Olivia, and Dom. They were wagging their tails as if to state, ‘It is ok. We know. It was a good life. Thanks for loving us.’ Everyone hugged Baxter and Graci because dogs do not cry at human’s problems dilemmas. In one real sense, they knew something more about eternal life than most humans. They could already began to smell their new afterlife.
Alone, Human brought Baxter and Graci to the veterinarian for the needle of death. She held onto and petted Baxter and Graci as she watched veterinarian stick that thin steel needle into Baxter’s and Graci’s bodies. Their eyes looked up towards Human’s eyes with a last thank you for a good life. Human held onto the back of their necks as she kissed them goodbye. Soon enough, Baxter and Graci closed their eyes to sleep forever. As if living in a bad dream, Human watched as her two doggie buddies disappeared into the dark doggie tunnel for their journey into the great beyond.
Human looked onto their lifeless bodies with the realization that a part of herself had died in that moment. A part of her earthly and human life, of her soul, was now forever gone. The veterinarian picked up Baxter and Graci and placed them into a cardboard box. He carried it to Human’s van and Human drove away in still silence.
Later on that day, Human and her husband and Olivia and Don drove together with the cardboard box. A tiny doggie funeral had been prepared for Baxter and Graci. They would be placed next to two other dogs, in the wooded and peaceful backyard of Human’s sister. Human placed their favorite doggie blankets and toys in the box. The short funeral happened without a trace of a smile or of a laugh. In the private moments of human’s earthly dreamlike somber moments, people can see their own mortality within the funeral of others. Yet, if they are smart, they will also start seeking for eternal life; instead of seeking only money if a world full of life and love.
After all was said and done, the real mourning would slowly creep into Human’s soul; Olivia’s and Dom’s and husband too. Returning to their house, everyone immediately noticed the stillness and silence of the house. Two dogs who had waggled and barked their way into the hearts and souls of mere mortal humans were now only a memory, but a powerful memory. A priceless memory that all of the money in the world could never buy.
The hearts of mere mortals who wished for the souls of immortals, if only within their hopeful dreams; because every hopeful human hopes for a sense of immortality. The voice of immortality filled the room with the memories of Baxter’s and Graci’s two wagging tails just as if they were still following Human into every room. Their physical shadows were not behind Human anymore. But that did not matter anymore because something more powerful had taken place. Human became increasingly aware of the increasingly enlarged flow of love from Baxter and Graci.
Human did not see it, but she felt it. She was feeling the love from Graci and Baxter as they started off in their new universe, free from their worn out bodies. Human was learning something about the deathless life and love that crosses over from one universe to another universe. Her spiritual heart lessened the pain of her human heart, healing the wounds of her hardest decision ever. Old habits never go away quickly or quietly. With every intention step, Human would turn her head downwards as if the Baxter or Graci were still following their human mother around the house. But with each downward turn towards the floor, Human could only feel the love of Baxter and Graci.
Within a day or two, Human thought she heard some barking in her backyard. So did Olivia and Domanic. They all ran outside to see what was there, but there were no dogs in the backyard. Human and Olivia and Domanic all looked up to see a half rainbow in the sky. Human moaned as she saw the surprise of her life. A cloud slowly took the shape of her dogs heads, as the first half of the rainbow.
The void of death is only for those who do not see beyond the pale gloom of the five physical senses. As all true spiritual seers spiritually know, the infinite spiritual senses of Soul overcomes the limited senses of the human brain’s limited perception of the universe. Baxter and Graci now belong to another universe, but their love will always be felt within the home of Human and her family.
SOME POEMS FOR DOG LOVERS
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here,
that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends,
so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine,
and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor;
those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again,
just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing;
they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together,
but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance.
His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers.
Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass,
his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet,
you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again.
The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head,
and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet,
so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
Stood Beside Your Bed Last Night
I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.
I could see that you were crying, you found it hard to sleep.
I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear.
"Its me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here"
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea.
You were thinking of the many times your hands reached down to me.
I was with you at the shops today, your arms were getting sore.
I want to take your parcels, I wished I could do more.
I was with you at my grave today, you tend it with such care.
I want to reassure you that I'm not lying there.
I walked with you towards the house as you fumbled for the key,
I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said "It's me".
You looked so very tired and then you sank into a chair,
I tried so hard to let you know that I was standing there.
Its possible for me to be so near you everyday,
to say to you with certainty "I never went away".
You sat there very quietly, then smiled,
I think you knew That in the stillness of that evening I was very close to you.
The day is over.... I smile and watch you yawning and say,
" Good Night, Sweet Dreams, God Bless, I'll see you in the morning".
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide
I'll rush to greet you and well stand together side by side.
I have so many things to show you, there's much for you to see.
Be patient, live your journey out; then come home and be with me.
-
Author Unknown-
DOG When God had made the earth and sky,
The flowers and the trees.
He then made all the animals,
The fish, the birds and bees.
And when at last He'd finished,
Not one was quite the same.
He said, "I'll walk this world of mine,
And give each one a name."
And so He traveled far and wide
And everywhere He went,
A little creature followed Him Until its strength was spent.
When all were named upon the earth
And in the sky and sea,
The little creature said,
"Dear Lord, There's not one left for me."
Kindly the Father said to him, "I've left you to the end.
I've turned my own name back to front
And called you dog, my friend
Author unknown...
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Ivanna Sees The Light
One great lecture at: http://tastethewind.blogspot.com/2010/12/major-problems-for-mankind.html
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 41 Ivanna Sees The Light (Based On A True Story)*
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe. Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
While the human spirit wants to travel faster and faster, either on earth or in space, the human body and brain were never built for high speed traveling; nor were they built to stop instantly into a solid object such as another car or trick, a brick wall, or even the earth itself. While the human mind has developed intellectually over millions of years to design and then build fast cars, planes, and spaceships, the human body has basically remained unchanged over the millions of years it has walked the earth. Every time a human being who foolishly steps into a car thinking they are protected from death by the car’s steal and metal are sadly mistaken. With death, arrives a new sense of speed as the bodiless human speeds forward through the tunnel of darkness as the human spirit lives on. With each new crash, in whatever form, people are forced to deal with death and possibly a new sense of life.
Ivanna never wanted to be a race car driver, but driving around California’s highways often seemed like an unofficial race car track. With speeds from 0-80 or more miles per hour, drivers played with speed every second of their driving lives. Some drivers played with speed by dodging in and out of traffic, while other drivers respected speed by driving within the speed limits and using common driving sense. Yet, an unfunny dilemma exists between the human spirit and speed. In short, the human body was not made to survive a gun’s tiny bullet, so what makes drivers think it was meant to survive crashing into anything as it moved like a human bullet in a car?
Ivanna loved driving down California’s highways, just as the millions of other drivers who love driving on highways on the world’s highways. California’s highways were built just like most of the highways around the globe and even in America. And like the millions of California’s drivers and hundreds of millions, (if not more) of drivers around the globe, Ivanna enjoyed the luxury of her car: the leather seats, the radio’s music, the feel of being in control of her driving life. Sometimes, she simply enjoyed being alone as she explored the malls and coffee shops of California. She also felt safe from the world as she sat inside her car, just as hundreds of millions of people do everyday. She also enjoyed the simple contact of her car’s black rubber tires rolling over the black tar or the light gray cement highways. The relative hard rubber testing its strength against the very hard rock highway. To bad the human body and brain were not made of rubber.
One day, during a philosophical discussion about life and death, Ivanna and a friend were joking around about how they were going to die. It seemed a harmless discussion, as they smiled back and forth about the different ways to die. Tossing ideas around about life and death might be more serious than some could imagine. Without a forethought, Ivanna joked that she predicated that she was going to die in car accident. She forgot, or did not know about the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy; nor had she been taught the metaphysical law of mental causation on her human life and body, along with their future destiny.
Ivanna’s body and soul seemed safe within the confines of the car’s steel framed, as they traveled through earth’s realm of space at a speed of 70 miles an hour. Ivanna had relaxed her mind after a hard day at work; just as hundreds of millions, if not billions of people around the globe do everyday of the year. Her free spirited soul enjoyed the moment of everyday. Speedily traveling through her world in a car seemed a safe bet in the mind of Ivanna. But speed travel always implies change, in one form or another. After all, speed implies change, whether a fast or slow change, but change nevertheless. Speed always also implies danger; even if people are not aware of the dangers of speed or words.
Life also implies change. From the moment a person is born into the world, most people are in a constant state of change. Both their bodies and minds are constantly changing. Some people change slowly, while other people change quickly; adapting themselves to life’s moments and the lessons of those lessons. There is a unique quality about learning and speed. Learning can happen in the blink of any eye. Or for some life lesson learners, it takes much longer to learn a life lesson; depending on the specific circumstances for each person.
On a sunny afternoon, Ivanna realized that she her mind was slowly drafting off into a sleepy mind. Ivanna knew that she could stop at anytime to rest on the side of the highway. But people usually do not drive on California’s highways to rest. Normally, it is not legally accepted to park anywhere and anytime you need to rest from a sleepy mind. Many highways do not have rest areas for people to rest; that is, to pull over to rest for a continued safe drive. But in the world of speedy drivers, the awake mind should never go to sleep, for any reason whatsoever.
Ivanna had tried and tried to keep her eyes open as she tried to keep her mind awake too. With both hands on the steering wheel and her foot on the gas pedal, Ivanna felt strong enough to stay awake. Ivanna felt her eyelids close for what seemed a few seconds. A mental blur of a mental blackout, so her mind could rest. Then they would open her eyes again, even as her mind was warning her to stop the car to take a rest for a few minutes. Her mind was shutting down!
Over and over again, she felt her eyelids close and open, close and open, until they could not open anymore. With each second with closed eyes and a drowsy mind, she had lost consciousness for a second or two; over and over again. Ivanna guessed, but she could not realize that her mind was falling asleep as the car was traveling at 70 miles an hour. She slowed down the car ten miles an hour below the legal speed limit, hoping that would help her stay awake. It did not help at all.
Yet, Ivanna’s body limped backward against the car’s seat, trapped within the seatbelt as the car’s speed increased as it roared toward the hill. As Ivanna’s speeding car began its crash into the mountainside, the speeding car quickly aborted its flight in its short distance through midair space. She did not know that her foot had fully pressed the gas pedal down to the floor. She could not know that her car was now an un-controllable ton of steel, speeding towards an unmovable hill of harden earth dirt and stone. She would not realized that her brain and body had become limp within the few seconds it took for her car to bounce off the highway, to go airborne, to touch down on the earth as the car crunched into a ball of steel as it rolled over and over again. It stopped as Ivanna still slept without knowing a trace of her earthly life.
Some may guess the both the body and the mind goes into some sort of defense mode before the moment of any death defying crash. Maybe the human soul of Ivanna had already left her body and that of the car before the ton of steel slammed into the soft green grassy hill.
But one thing can be sure! Her unchangeable divine, totally spiritual selfhood was always free from the car crash. Her true perfect spiritual selfhood is not made up of skin and bones and blood and other bodily parts. Her eternal perfect identity was never in a human body, nor was it ever in a human built car. Her true Christ-selfhood is never going to die, because her divine life is an eternal idea of the Mind of God and the Life that is eternal. Ivanna’s true perfect spiritual selfhood is never going to be unconscious, nor will it ever die. Of course, most human people do not know that, and neither did the human people who would be looking at her body, and helping her body and brain stay live in the following months.
As the police officers looked on the scene, the firemen were arriving with her shiny red fire trucks. Police and firemen are somewhat different kinds of humans than the normal everyday humans who do not observe the effects of car crashes. The police and firemen know that speed and the human body do not mix as good dance partners. No car has proven to be invincible after it has smashed against the earth’s surface. The police observed the firemen and paramedics and other emergency personal as they pulled the mangled human body from the tangled ton of crushed steel. They all knew something was happening that they wish they could forget. But they had learned to deal with the bad memories of car crashes and death.
Unlike the policemen and the firemen who pulled Ivanna from the car wreck, the sleeping Ivanna had no dreams of her body being pulled from the twisted ton of steel. A ton of steel protects the human body only when the car obeys the laws of do not crash into the hard earth. Bent inwards like a empty soda can, the car’s engine laid next to the body of Ivannak, in passenger seat, as if the two were going to die together. Nevertheless, Ivanna’s body was still functioning, although troubled times were now speeding towards her human body, her brain, her human life. But it would never touch her divine, perfect, spiritual, unchangeable selfhood.
The doctors at Sanford hospital began their professional work. Treating skin, bones, and internal organs is one set of problems, but treating the brain is another problem altogether. Ivanna’s brain was in total danger of never seeing the light of day, ever again. Ivanna’s body was in bad shape too. The threats to her body and brain are known to the medical professionals who deal with dying patients everyday of the week. But needless to imagine, or to even state as a practical medical truth, the parts of the body are currently understood much better than the brain. Ivanna’s brain was severely testing the limits of the thin division between life and death. Like her lacerated liver that would slowly regrow itself anew, after much work from the hospital staff and doctors.
Medical professionals were quickly bought in to analyze Ivanna and her brain. They began their work, using all of the modern day medical tools to pump oxygen into her brain. Her lungs too, were in need of oxygen, so in went a tube into her throat to feed oxygen to her lungs. In no time at all, Ivanna’s body was on a total life support system. A tube in her throat enable her lungs to breath, just as the steel instrument into her brain enable her brain to be feed oxygen. A steel tube in her skull enabled her brain to receive the needed oxygen it needed to survive. In no uncertain terms, Ivanna’s body and brain laid in the hospital bed as hope for life was all around her. Moreover, the medical machines that kept her body’s normal functions operating as if she was a conscious human.
Ivanna slept and slept and slept. The doctors knew that she was not totally conscious within her brain, even as the life support system worked around the clock, for every second of everyday. But even as she laid in the hospital bed, the medical questions surrounded her too. Is a person wholly depended only on the functions of the brain for life and consciousness? Some thinkers question this limited conception of life and consciousness. They also ponder the question, is consciousness depended only on a human brain, or is there a consciousness outside the human brain; even the issue of a conscious universe. So the argument is debated among scholars in many challenging fields of study.
Is intelligence limited to the human brain or is the universe also intelligent? Was not intelligence operating from the moment of the Big Bang or whatever happened billions of light years ago? Aren’t there different kinds of intelligence operating on earth and in the cosmic universes? Is intelligence only available only to the human brain and human mind. How about the brains of earth’s other smaller brainy creatures. Is intelligence limited only to the human brain, or does the human brain reflect a less material human mind intelligence which is connected to the brain? Or is intelligence a multi-dimensional Intelligence called God which operates on every level of life and even within the seemingly realm of death? More importantly, if there is an Infinite Supreme Intelligent Consciousness called God, and an intelligent conscious universe, and intelligent conscious humans with human brains? Are they all connected for in one grand design of Infinite Intelligence that operates on all levels of every single individual realm of intelligent conscious experience?
Ivanna’s brain rested as it repaired itself, but her intelligent soul drifted away to other realms of dreams of space and time. As her human body laid on the hospital bed, it was kept alive by the hospital’s life support system, her intelligent human soul was freed to explore some of the other dimensions of the multi-dimensional universe. A long rest from her body as she escaped to new adventures away from her body. Some vacations away from the body were dreamy while others were as clear as the sun of the day. Traveling through the dark tunnel like a slow moving human bullet, Ivanna did not remember her car crash. She only saw the light. Ivanna traveled closer to the point of light her in her new astral universe.
‘What am I now? I do not feel my skin and bone body anymore. I seem to be floating without that skin and bone body, so what am I now. Since I seem to be floating in some sort of astral space, what I am now, after the death of the body? I seem to be thinking without my brain, so am I a different kind of intelligent being? If I can think without a brain, is my immaterial soul thinking without a human brain.? I seem to be moving, but not in a speeding car. I feel no wind against my soul. So how can I be moving through this tunnel of darkness? I feel so at peace, without pain, but what is next for me?’ Ivanna asked herself in her new universe.
In no time at all, she saw the pencil point of light at a distance in the surrounding darkness. Not helping being curious to find the light in the total black darkness in the astral tunnel beyond the human brain and its very limited conceptions and perceptions of the multi-dimension universe, beyond the universe of space and time, Ivanna floatingly flew towards the light; the one thing all intelligent creatures of earth find enjoyable.
‘What is that white light?’ questioned the bodiless Ivanna. ‘Will it be my new universe or is it guiding light into a different universe? Is it a guiding light with a message for me? Or do I have a choice to either enter the light or not? Is the white light God or will I meet people there? What is there for me? Who will I meet? Is it in my brain or outside the normal universe of space and time? Will space and time be different than the space and time of earth? Who or what will be there in the white light? People or souls or supernatural creatures? What will be in the white light for me?
The plants rise up to touch the light of the sun, the moths fly around the light of the lightbulb, people enjoy the light of the fire, while other people bath in the light of the sun, while other people learn about the light of intelligence in its many forms. Few people on earth wonder about the metaphysical light of God and the afterlife. But some do and they are rewarded with many mental and metaphysical adventures even as they walk as humans on earth. Other people need a push to the light by way of experiencing a near death experience. (NDE)
Ivanna saw the pinpoint light in the surrounding black darkness and there was no way of turning back to her earthly life, so she floated towards the ever widening light. Wider and wider it widen until she was closer to the light; just as a spaceship would see the growing sun become wider and wider until the spaceship stop before it was burned up by the sun. Only her human soul was not burning up at all. Instead, she began to wonder what happened if she crossed over to the other side; would she be able to return to earth?
She looked at the bright white light as she rested in the astral space. She waited, as if she had a choice. To go into the white light or to return to her earthly form to tell her story to a writer. But more than that, to enjoy and see a new life on earth. To see the life beyond the material objects of the brain’s limited visual visions to a new life with a new dimensional sense of oneness with the cosmic universe and with life on earth. A new consciousness, with new visions of life, with a new sense of possibilities, with a new mental outlook, with a new opinion of death, and of light, and new sense of being connected to the eternal life called God.
She heard her mind heart telling itself that she was not ready to die. That she had more living to do before she truly left her human life. She heard these words flow out of the white light into her mind. "IF THERE IS FAITH IN THE WORLD, THERE IS HOPE.’ The words echoed deep within her soul’s memory, so she would not forget the words as she returned to her earth body and brain.
After her three months of deep sleep, and astral travels, Ivanna returned to her brain and human life. Her soul was completely rested and transformed by her near death experience. She woke up in the hospital bed. Ivanna woke up as a normal conscious human being; with skin and bones and their normal sensations. With the hospitals life supports still attached to her human body, Ivanna slowly opened her eyes as her brain slowly returned to its normal activity. Ivanna’s human soul returned to her normal consciousness, only as a different person, a different mental outlook!
After she opened up her eyes, Ivanna looked around the hospital room with its machines surrounding her body, with tubes of different sizes stuck into her body. She tried to remember what had happen to her body. But with a tube in her throat, she could not even ask the nurse or doctor why she was laying in a hospital bed. She realized that something tremble must have happened to her. She noticed the sunlight from the window and somehow, she found a bit of joy knowing she was still alive to see the sunlight again. She saw the sunlight anew.
She heard the words from her doctor, ‘Hello Ivanna. Welcome back to the land of the living. We did not expect you to make it back. You have been in a coma for three months, but you really surprised us all with your will to live.’ Little by little, information was given to her by family and friends. Ivanna looked around the hospital room trying with the disbelief she had lost three months of her life.
After she had been removed from the hospital’s life support machines, she learned to talk again, one word after another word, just as if she was a toddler. It was tough recovery for Ivanna, just as she had to learn to walk again, step by step. By one foot moving forward into space, her mind moved forward into time. Time was all she had for the moment. Time became a question of steps and words, not seconds, or minutes, or hours. Each fully and correctly pronounced word brought forth the hope of a complete and perfect sentence. After twenty (20) months of mental and physical rehabilitation, Ivanna was again walking and talking like most people, but she was living with her near death experience as a constant reminder that there is more to human life than meets the human eye.
Now that she being reborn into a new human, just as a baby who learns to talk and walk exiting the dark tunnel of birth, she now had the rare opportunity to observe and listen and think and learn. Slowly, she began to perceive her whole life differently. She saw new energy from the trees and plants that she never noticed before; an energized airy atmosphere by their own sense of life.
The church looked same from the outside, but she felt different on the inside. She saw her friend with who had joked about foreseeing their deaths. They waved at each other before her friend yelled out, ‘I guess you were wrong. You are not going to die in a car crash.’
‘I guess not. I do not think I am ever going to die.’ responded Ivanna. She was not joking.
Her first visit to her church was different than before. When she heard the preacher yell out the words, ‘And if you believe in me, you too will have eternal life.’ Ivanna would look around the congregation without a smile because she was trying to hold back the tears of gratitude for her gift of a second chance at life.
After the church’s sermons were finished, Ivanna began her walk out of the church. The preacher was standing on the steps just outside the church’s front door. The sunlight was energizing nature’s life. She slowly lifted her head up to the sky to see the round yellow sun. She dreamingly saw her human soul self floating up towards the sun, watching the sun get bigger and bigger, wider and wider. What would the sun tell me if it could speak to me? She wondered.
When the preacher saw Ivanna walk out of the door, he said, ‘Well Ivanna, it is good to have you back with us.’
‘It is great to be alive.’ responded Ivanna, as she walked down the church’s steps.
The preacher smiled down onto Ivanna with a smile as he stated, ‘IF THERE IS FAITH IN THE WORLD, THERE IS HOPE.’
Ivanna slowly turned her head back to the preacher with a grin. ‘I have heard that statement somewhere before.’
* Good Luck To Ivanna. Enjoy your second chance at learning about life.
DVD to watch: "An Unfinished Life"
The New Yorker: Oct. 15, 2007 pg. 38-43. Medical Dispatch: Silent Minds
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 41 Ivanna Sees The Light (Based On A True Story)*
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe. Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
While the human spirit wants to travel faster and faster, either on earth or in space, the human body and brain were never built for high speed traveling; nor were they built to stop instantly into a solid object such as another car or trick, a brick wall, or even the earth itself. While the human mind has developed intellectually over millions of years to design and then build fast cars, planes, and spaceships, the human body has basically remained unchanged over the millions of years it has walked the earth. Every time a human being who foolishly steps into a car thinking they are protected from death by the car’s steal and metal are sadly mistaken. With death, arrives a new sense of speed as the bodiless human speeds forward through the tunnel of darkness as the human spirit lives on. With each new crash, in whatever form, people are forced to deal with death and possibly a new sense of life.
Ivanna never wanted to be a race car driver, but driving around California’s highways often seemed like an unofficial race car track. With speeds from 0-80 or more miles per hour, drivers played with speed every second of their driving lives. Some drivers played with speed by dodging in and out of traffic, while other drivers respected speed by driving within the speed limits and using common driving sense. Yet, an unfunny dilemma exists between the human spirit and speed. In short, the human body was not made to survive a gun’s tiny bullet, so what makes drivers think it was meant to survive crashing into anything as it moved like a human bullet in a car?
Ivanna loved driving down California’s highways, just as the millions of other drivers who love driving on highways on the world’s highways. California’s highways were built just like most of the highways around the globe and even in America. And like the millions of California’s drivers and hundreds of millions, (if not more) of drivers around the globe, Ivanna enjoyed the luxury of her car: the leather seats, the radio’s music, the feel of being in control of her driving life. Sometimes, she simply enjoyed being alone as she explored the malls and coffee shops of California. She also felt safe from the world as she sat inside her car, just as hundreds of millions of people do everyday. She also enjoyed the simple contact of her car’s black rubber tires rolling over the black tar or the light gray cement highways. The relative hard rubber testing its strength against the very hard rock highway. To bad the human body and brain were not made of rubber.
One day, during a philosophical discussion about life and death, Ivanna and a friend were joking around about how they were going to die. It seemed a harmless discussion, as they smiled back and forth about the different ways to die. Tossing ideas around about life and death might be more serious than some could imagine. Without a forethought, Ivanna joked that she predicated that she was going to die in car accident. She forgot, or did not know about the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy; nor had she been taught the metaphysical law of mental causation on her human life and body, along with their future destiny.
Ivanna’s body and soul seemed safe within the confines of the car’s steel framed, as they traveled through earth’s realm of space at a speed of 70 miles an hour. Ivanna had relaxed her mind after a hard day at work; just as hundreds of millions, if not billions of people around the globe do everyday of the year. Her free spirited soul enjoyed the moment of everyday. Speedily traveling through her world in a car seemed a safe bet in the mind of Ivanna. But speed travel always implies change, in one form or another. After all, speed implies change, whether a fast or slow change, but change nevertheless. Speed always also implies danger; even if people are not aware of the dangers of speed or words.
Life also implies change. From the moment a person is born into the world, most people are in a constant state of change. Both their bodies and minds are constantly changing. Some people change slowly, while other people change quickly; adapting themselves to life’s moments and the lessons of those lessons. There is a unique quality about learning and speed. Learning can happen in the blink of any eye. Or for some life lesson learners, it takes much longer to learn a life lesson; depending on the specific circumstances for each person.
On a sunny afternoon, Ivanna realized that she her mind was slowly drafting off into a sleepy mind. Ivanna knew that she could stop at anytime to rest on the side of the highway. But people usually do not drive on California’s highways to rest. Normally, it is not legally accepted to park anywhere and anytime you need to rest from a sleepy mind. Many highways do not have rest areas for people to rest; that is, to pull over to rest for a continued safe drive. But in the world of speedy drivers, the awake mind should never go to sleep, for any reason whatsoever.
Ivanna had tried and tried to keep her eyes open as she tried to keep her mind awake too. With both hands on the steering wheel and her foot on the gas pedal, Ivanna felt strong enough to stay awake. Ivanna felt her eyelids close for what seemed a few seconds. A mental blur of a mental blackout, so her mind could rest. Then they would open her eyes again, even as her mind was warning her to stop the car to take a rest for a few minutes. Her mind was shutting down!
Over and over again, she felt her eyelids close and open, close and open, until they could not open anymore. With each second with closed eyes and a drowsy mind, she had lost consciousness for a second or two; over and over again. Ivanna guessed, but she could not realize that her mind was falling asleep as the car was traveling at 70 miles an hour. She slowed down the car ten miles an hour below the legal speed limit, hoping that would help her stay awake. It did not help at all.
Yet, Ivanna’s body limped backward against the car’s seat, trapped within the seatbelt as the car’s speed increased as it roared toward the hill. As Ivanna’s speeding car began its crash into the mountainside, the speeding car quickly aborted its flight in its short distance through midair space. She did not know that her foot had fully pressed the gas pedal down to the floor. She could not know that her car was now an un-controllable ton of steel, speeding towards an unmovable hill of harden earth dirt and stone. She would not realized that her brain and body had become limp within the few seconds it took for her car to bounce off the highway, to go airborne, to touch down on the earth as the car crunched into a ball of steel as it rolled over and over again. It stopped as Ivanna still slept without knowing a trace of her earthly life.
Some may guess the both the body and the mind goes into some sort of defense mode before the moment of any death defying crash. Maybe the human soul of Ivanna had already left her body and that of the car before the ton of steel slammed into the soft green grassy hill.
But one thing can be sure! Her unchangeable divine, totally spiritual selfhood was always free from the car crash. Her true perfect spiritual selfhood is not made up of skin and bones and blood and other bodily parts. Her eternal perfect identity was never in a human body, nor was it ever in a human built car. Her true Christ-selfhood is never going to die, because her divine life is an eternal idea of the Mind of God and the Life that is eternal. Ivanna’s true perfect spiritual selfhood is never going to be unconscious, nor will it ever die. Of course, most human people do not know that, and neither did the human people who would be looking at her body, and helping her body and brain stay live in the following months.
As the police officers looked on the scene, the firemen were arriving with her shiny red fire trucks. Police and firemen are somewhat different kinds of humans than the normal everyday humans who do not observe the effects of car crashes. The police and firemen know that speed and the human body do not mix as good dance partners. No car has proven to be invincible after it has smashed against the earth’s surface. The police observed the firemen and paramedics and other emergency personal as they pulled the mangled human body from the tangled ton of crushed steel. They all knew something was happening that they wish they could forget. But they had learned to deal with the bad memories of car crashes and death.
Unlike the policemen and the firemen who pulled Ivanna from the car wreck, the sleeping Ivanna had no dreams of her body being pulled from the twisted ton of steel. A ton of steel protects the human body only when the car obeys the laws of do not crash into the hard earth. Bent inwards like a empty soda can, the car’s engine laid next to the body of Ivannak, in passenger seat, as if the two were going to die together. Nevertheless, Ivanna’s body was still functioning, although troubled times were now speeding towards her human body, her brain, her human life. But it would never touch her divine, perfect, spiritual, unchangeable selfhood.
The doctors at Sanford hospital began their professional work. Treating skin, bones, and internal organs is one set of problems, but treating the brain is another problem altogether. Ivanna’s brain was in total danger of never seeing the light of day, ever again. Ivanna’s body was in bad shape too. The threats to her body and brain are known to the medical professionals who deal with dying patients everyday of the week. But needless to imagine, or to even state as a practical medical truth, the parts of the body are currently understood much better than the brain. Ivanna’s brain was severely testing the limits of the thin division between life and death. Like her lacerated liver that would slowly regrow itself anew, after much work from the hospital staff and doctors.
Medical professionals were quickly bought in to analyze Ivanna and her brain. They began their work, using all of the modern day medical tools to pump oxygen into her brain. Her lungs too, were in need of oxygen, so in went a tube into her throat to feed oxygen to her lungs. In no time at all, Ivanna’s body was on a total life support system. A tube in her throat enable her lungs to breath, just as the steel instrument into her brain enable her brain to be feed oxygen. A steel tube in her skull enabled her brain to receive the needed oxygen it needed to survive. In no uncertain terms, Ivanna’s body and brain laid in the hospital bed as hope for life was all around her. Moreover, the medical machines that kept her body’s normal functions operating as if she was a conscious human.
Ivanna slept and slept and slept. The doctors knew that she was not totally conscious within her brain, even as the life support system worked around the clock, for every second of everyday. But even as she laid in the hospital bed, the medical questions surrounded her too. Is a person wholly depended only on the functions of the brain for life and consciousness? Some thinkers question this limited conception of life and consciousness. They also ponder the question, is consciousness depended only on a human brain, or is there a consciousness outside the human brain; even the issue of a conscious universe. So the argument is debated among scholars in many challenging fields of study.
Is intelligence limited to the human brain or is the universe also intelligent? Was not intelligence operating from the moment of the Big Bang or whatever happened billions of light years ago? Aren’t there different kinds of intelligence operating on earth and in the cosmic universes? Is intelligence only available only to the human brain and human mind. How about the brains of earth’s other smaller brainy creatures. Is intelligence limited only to the human brain, or does the human brain reflect a less material human mind intelligence which is connected to the brain? Or is intelligence a multi-dimensional Intelligence called God which operates on every level of life and even within the seemingly realm of death? More importantly, if there is an Infinite Supreme Intelligent Consciousness called God, and an intelligent conscious universe, and intelligent conscious humans with human brains? Are they all connected for in one grand design of Infinite Intelligence that operates on all levels of every single individual realm of intelligent conscious experience?
Ivanna’s brain rested as it repaired itself, but her intelligent soul drifted away to other realms of dreams of space and time. As her human body laid on the hospital bed, it was kept alive by the hospital’s life support system, her intelligent human soul was freed to explore some of the other dimensions of the multi-dimensional universe. A long rest from her body as she escaped to new adventures away from her body. Some vacations away from the body were dreamy while others were as clear as the sun of the day. Traveling through the dark tunnel like a slow moving human bullet, Ivanna did not remember her car crash. She only saw the light. Ivanna traveled closer to the point of light her in her new astral universe.
‘What am I now? I do not feel my skin and bone body anymore. I seem to be floating without that skin and bone body, so what am I now. Since I seem to be floating in some sort of astral space, what I am now, after the death of the body? I seem to be thinking without my brain, so am I a different kind of intelligent being? If I can think without a brain, is my immaterial soul thinking without a human brain.? I seem to be moving, but not in a speeding car. I feel no wind against my soul. So how can I be moving through this tunnel of darkness? I feel so at peace, without pain, but what is next for me?’ Ivanna asked herself in her new universe.
In no time at all, she saw the pencil point of light at a distance in the surrounding darkness. Not helping being curious to find the light in the total black darkness in the astral tunnel beyond the human brain and its very limited conceptions and perceptions of the multi-dimension universe, beyond the universe of space and time, Ivanna floatingly flew towards the light; the one thing all intelligent creatures of earth find enjoyable.
‘What is that white light?’ questioned the bodiless Ivanna. ‘Will it be my new universe or is it guiding light into a different universe? Is it a guiding light with a message for me? Or do I have a choice to either enter the light or not? Is the white light God or will I meet people there? What is there for me? Who will I meet? Is it in my brain or outside the normal universe of space and time? Will space and time be different than the space and time of earth? Who or what will be there in the white light? People or souls or supernatural creatures? What will be in the white light for me?
The plants rise up to touch the light of the sun, the moths fly around the light of the lightbulb, people enjoy the light of the fire, while other people bath in the light of the sun, while other people learn about the light of intelligence in its many forms. Few people on earth wonder about the metaphysical light of God and the afterlife. But some do and they are rewarded with many mental and metaphysical adventures even as they walk as humans on earth. Other people need a push to the light by way of experiencing a near death experience. (NDE)
Ivanna saw the pinpoint light in the surrounding black darkness and there was no way of turning back to her earthly life, so she floated towards the ever widening light. Wider and wider it widen until she was closer to the light; just as a spaceship would see the growing sun become wider and wider until the spaceship stop before it was burned up by the sun. Only her human soul was not burning up at all. Instead, she began to wonder what happened if she crossed over to the other side; would she be able to return to earth?
She looked at the bright white light as she rested in the astral space. She waited, as if she had a choice. To go into the white light or to return to her earthly form to tell her story to a writer. But more than that, to enjoy and see a new life on earth. To see the life beyond the material objects of the brain’s limited visual visions to a new life with a new dimensional sense of oneness with the cosmic universe and with life on earth. A new consciousness, with new visions of life, with a new sense of possibilities, with a new mental outlook, with a new opinion of death, and of light, and new sense of being connected to the eternal life called God.
She heard her mind heart telling itself that she was not ready to die. That she had more living to do before she truly left her human life. She heard these words flow out of the white light into her mind. "IF THERE IS FAITH IN THE WORLD, THERE IS HOPE.’ The words echoed deep within her soul’s memory, so she would not forget the words as she returned to her earth body and brain.
After her three months of deep sleep, and astral travels, Ivanna returned to her brain and human life. Her soul was completely rested and transformed by her near death experience. She woke up in the hospital bed. Ivanna woke up as a normal conscious human being; with skin and bones and their normal sensations. With the hospitals life supports still attached to her human body, Ivanna slowly opened her eyes as her brain slowly returned to its normal activity. Ivanna’s human soul returned to her normal consciousness, only as a different person, a different mental outlook!
After she opened up her eyes, Ivanna looked around the hospital room with its machines surrounding her body, with tubes of different sizes stuck into her body. She tried to remember what had happen to her body. But with a tube in her throat, she could not even ask the nurse or doctor why she was laying in a hospital bed. She realized that something tremble must have happened to her. She noticed the sunlight from the window and somehow, she found a bit of joy knowing she was still alive to see the sunlight again. She saw the sunlight anew.
She heard the words from her doctor, ‘Hello Ivanna. Welcome back to the land of the living. We did not expect you to make it back. You have been in a coma for three months, but you really surprised us all with your will to live.’ Little by little, information was given to her by family and friends. Ivanna looked around the hospital room trying with the disbelief she had lost three months of her life.
After she had been removed from the hospital’s life support machines, she learned to talk again, one word after another word, just as if she was a toddler. It was tough recovery for Ivanna, just as she had to learn to walk again, step by step. By one foot moving forward into space, her mind moved forward into time. Time was all she had for the moment. Time became a question of steps and words, not seconds, or minutes, or hours. Each fully and correctly pronounced word brought forth the hope of a complete and perfect sentence. After twenty (20) months of mental and physical rehabilitation, Ivanna was again walking and talking like most people, but she was living with her near death experience as a constant reminder that there is more to human life than meets the human eye.
Now that she being reborn into a new human, just as a baby who learns to talk and walk exiting the dark tunnel of birth, she now had the rare opportunity to observe and listen and think and learn. Slowly, she began to perceive her whole life differently. She saw new energy from the trees and plants that she never noticed before; an energized airy atmosphere by their own sense of life.
The church looked same from the outside, but she felt different on the inside. She saw her friend with who had joked about foreseeing their deaths. They waved at each other before her friend yelled out, ‘I guess you were wrong. You are not going to die in a car crash.’
‘I guess not. I do not think I am ever going to die.’ responded Ivanna. She was not joking.
Her first visit to her church was different than before. When she heard the preacher yell out the words, ‘And if you believe in me, you too will have eternal life.’ Ivanna would look around the congregation without a smile because she was trying to hold back the tears of gratitude for her gift of a second chance at life.
After the church’s sermons were finished, Ivanna began her walk out of the church. The preacher was standing on the steps just outside the church’s front door. The sunlight was energizing nature’s life. She slowly lifted her head up to the sky to see the round yellow sun. She dreamingly saw her human soul self floating up towards the sun, watching the sun get bigger and bigger, wider and wider. What would the sun tell me if it could speak to me? She wondered.
When the preacher saw Ivanna walk out of the door, he said, ‘Well Ivanna, it is good to have you back with us.’
‘It is great to be alive.’ responded Ivanna, as she walked down the church’s steps.
The preacher smiled down onto Ivanna with a smile as he stated, ‘IF THERE IS FAITH IN THE WORLD, THERE IS HOPE.’
Ivanna slowly turned her head back to the preacher with a grin. ‘I have heard that statement somewhere before.’
* Good Luck To Ivanna. Enjoy your second chance at learning about life.
DVD to watch: "An Unfinished Life"
The New Yorker: Oct. 15, 2007 pg. 38-43. Medical Dispatch: Silent Minds
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Tony The Thief: Trapped
52 Stories in 52 Weeks: ## 40 Tony The Thief: Trapped *
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
The house sat alone, on top of a lonely hill, as an unprotected temptation to any thief. Tony sat alone too, in the valley night after night, being tempted by the house’s unspoken desires. Sooner rather than later, Tony mustered up the courage to enter the trap of his own demise, although he knew it not. From a distance, Tony saw only the dark windows during the night hours, as if no soul lived in the house. ‘Surely, no one must be living there, leaving the house’s items unprotected.’ thought Tony.
The issue never emerged within Tony’s mind that maybe his mind and soul was as dark as the house’s windows, so he was not afraid to enter the house with no lights. Being spellbound by the unknown, he could not shake the urge to enter and explore the unknown world of a single standing, seemingly lonely house. The housed seemed to be inviting him in for a visit.
Tony had walked in darkness all of his life; almost from the moment of his birth. He had never seen the light beyond the darkness that surrounded his life, or within his own mind and future. Even though the sunrise rose every morning with the hint of the metaphysical light of wonder, he walked on earth with little wonder in his soul or mind. The metaphysical light of wonder was always within reach of Tony’s thoughts, but he knew not the way or the path to the light of wonderment. He felt as if he had something called a soul, or something other than a skin and bones body, but he never saw it underneath the light of daylight; of that powerful sunlight.
But being a thief in the nighttime, he missed most of the daylight since he mostly slept throughout the daylight. Being a soul walker of the night, he had seen the guts of so many houses that he had seen so many of those nice and normal household items people could own if they worked to make money to purchase household stuff. Even if they never had a hint of the guiding light that would lead them out of darkness of their souls. It seemed a simple dilemma really; the light versus the darkness; just as the sunlight versus the darkest moonless nights for all creatures of the earth.
While most people slept at night, searching for their dreamy adventures in their dreamworlds, or to simply rest for their next day of sunlight, Tony was searching for his own dream of an peopleless house; but a house filled with goodies that he would keep or sell for money. Tony always felt that houses were plainly devoid of a soul when they were empty of living people, like owners and the owners families. Wood and nails put together to form different sized boxes for one purpose or another, so people could live and rest from the world, day or night.
Tony always carried a thick steel crowbar to pry open a window or a door. He knew that he could use it as a weapon if he needed to defend himself from a homeowner who was defending his house from a thief. Tony did not grow up with thieving parents; nor did his brothers and sisters steal. Tony never dreamed of becoming a professional thief, but he called himself a good amateur thief since he had never been caught by either the police or the homeowners; at least not yet.
But sometime, a few months before he was to become an adult, an uncaring gang friend dared Tony to use his crowbar to open a window to the old lonely house on the lonely hill. The dare was to stay in the house for only five minutes. At which time, Tony was to leave the building with only one item. It was part of a gang test, but the gang was always testing. Tony did not hesitate to unlawfully enter a house without the owners permission, because he always followed the gang’s dares because he felt that the gang was more important then losing his freedom or his soul.
It was a moonless night when Tony was dared to unlawfully break into the lonely house, just for the foolish fun of it, just for the foolish challenge of it. The cool winds were blowing wildly through the dark air and around the already chilly Tony. But Tony was dressed with warm black clothes, to be prepared for the chilly guts of the lonely house. He could barely see himself in the night’s shadows. As he walked up the house, he felt his heart increase its pumping action, as his mind was telling him to turn around and pump his feet out of the yard. Two silent voices within the mind of Tony; each voice was a different future for Tony; although he knew not what each future would be for him. One voice said go into the lonely house, the other voice said turn around and run away.
He looked at the house, guessing that it was supposed to be empty of people. But he could not be sure if the house was empty or if people were in it. He knew that the gang had played jokes on him before, with their own sense of humor. They were always looking for a good laugh, at the expense of Tony. But Tony never wavered from their challenges. Tony always wanted to satisfy the gang no matter the result. Even a jail sentence was not a concern for Tony, because he was foolishly unaware of the law of unintended consequences.
As Tony grabbed the crowbar out of his book backpack, he felt his body sweat with cold fear as he looked around the yard. Something seemed strange, but he could not put his finger on it. Yet, he slowly lowered the crowbar to the windows bottom edge and he very slowly pried open the wooden window. Pushing the wooden window up as high as he could push it, he lifted one foot to step through the window, and then the other foot. He knelt down on the cold wooden floor, just to get his mind settled before he began roaming throughout the house. He listened through the house’s silence, but he heard only silence. So Tony closed the window so as not to bring attention to the house with an open window. Tony was trying to be careful, but sometimes being careful can still change the future of one’s life.
Tony held onto the steel crowbar, just in case he needed a weapon against an attacking dog. With the other hand, he grabbed his flashlight and he turned it on. The flashlight’s beam lit up the room. Tony felt like he was temporally safe when he saw the books on the bookshelves. ‘How am I going to find something valuable in a room filled up with books?’ thought Tony.
He stood up and he looked down the aisle of books. He started to softly walk down the aisle of books with his beaming flashlight lighting up the way for him. He knew that he needed to bring something back to the gang as proof that he completed the dare for the gang. He was thinking about a diamond ring or a gun or maybe some cash from a wall safe. He knew that he was going to have to search for something worth some money, so the gang could sell it at a pawn shop.
Walking through down the aisle of books, on both sides of him, he realized that he had never seen so many books in his life. The bookshelves went all the way to the ceiling. Tony was beginning to think that he was in a library, but how could the lonely house be an even lonelier library. It must have been a book room for a very rich guy who loved to collect books, so thought Tony. The rich guy most own better items to steal. Or could he?
So he continued to walk to the next room. He opened the glass door, and he saw many more tall bookshelves with books stacked as high as the ceiling. He walked to the next room and he saw a kitchen pass the next room of books. Next to the kitchen was a room with huge leather chairs and a few sofas. He began to feel comfortable, for many reasons. He was starting to get hungry and tired. He saw huge leather chairs to sit down to rest for a while. And he realized that maybe he would not have to steal anything for the gang, at least for this night. ‘I could always take a book for them. Then the joke would be on them.’ thought Tony, as he noticed the wooden stairs.
The wooden stairs teased his eyes with real thieving possibilities. So he started to walk up the stairs and he carefully and slowly took one step at a time, just to make sure the wooden stairs did not squeak. After all, all thieves know how one squeak of any kind could wake up a sleeping dog. And no thieve wants to deal with a sleeping and especially an awake dog. When he reached the top of the wooden stairs, he noticed the rows and columns of books on the left side of the hallway. They exactly echoed the rows and columns of books on the first floor.
But he noticed the brass signs on the bookshelves ends. So he walked down the lightly lit hallway, only to see the black letters on the brass signs. One after another: History, Economics, Religions of the World, Art, Music, Math, Science, Law, Politics, Psychology, and on and on and on. He could not believe it. ‘What am I going to do, steal a book?’ he asked himself. ‘How was he or they going to make any money with a book? What kind of house was this anyway? Who buys a house and fills it up with books? How could there be books in every room? Did one person read all of these books? I bet there are books in the bathroom too!’ Tony silently giggled at that last thought.
He was beginning to feel as if no one was in the house, so he started to feel at ease as he began his walk down the wooden stairs. Tony was still very careful with each step he took; so he lightly stepped down on the wooden stairs to sneak a listen to the stair’s squeak before the squeak entered the higher air currents of the house. As soon as he started to walk down the wooden stairs, he felt a change in the houses air currents anyway. He felt it was time to leave, so he hurried back to the window from which he had entered the book filled house.
The window was waiting for him as he tried to lift the wooden window up. But it was stuck. It would not budge. So he reached for his crowbar out of his unofficial book backpack and he pointed the steel edge towards the bottom of the window edge. His arm’s muscles tensed as he felt nothing, except the new sweat on his forehead. He could not wait any longer to get out of the house, so he grabbed onto the steel crowbar with one sturdy hand, all fingers tightly holding the instrument of destruction. One flick of his wrist, he swung the crowbar into the window. His eyes opened as the steel crowbar bounced back towards his body. He gripped the crowbar with both hands, and with his two arms, he straightway aimed the edge of the crowbar into the window again. Again, it only bounced back, only harder this time. The sweat of fear began to bubble up on his forehead as he thought, ‘Who protects their books?’
Tony headed towards the front door. Heck, he thought. It should be easy enough to just walk out of the peopleless house. He crept passed the rolls of bookshelves, towards the front door. His body went limp as he notice the seemingly unbelievable sight before his eyes. DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS. Not only one, but two. Tony quickly froze as he guessed that if the front door had DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS, then the rear door probably had DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS too. And if one window had unbreakable Plexiglas as one window, then every window probably had unbreakable Plexiglas too. Tony walked to each window to try to pry them open, but to no avail.
Tony quietly walked over to the refrigerator, opened it and grabbed a drink. He listened intently for any sounds which might have indicated someone had woke up, if anyone was indeed inside the building. After he sat down in a oversized soft leather chair, he put up his feet and relaxed. He felt as if his mind was becoming sleepy, as if he was starting to dream without sleeping. He felt the air become cooler and cooler, as if an air conditioner was on, but he could not hear any sounds throughout the house. It still seemed to be empty, except for the books.
Trapped inside a house with nothing but books, Tony began to feel something new about the house and about himself. He had never seen so many books in his life. He never knew that some people actually like books for all kinds of reasons. To discover other people’s adventures, to learn about new ideas of life and death, of honor and self, to explore new worlds and universes. To find the God of all .To find one’s mind too. Tony’s mind began to realize that there were other possible lives beside his own life of being a thief. He started to see another life for himself, separte from the life of being a gang member; if that is called a life.
The books and the authors started to speak from the great beyond to him. Tony sat still in the huge, leather grand chair to listen to the authors from the great beyond. He closed his eyes to calm himself down; and to calm down the author’s voices from the great beyond, even from the voices from the books themselves. ‘Could the voices of authors speak to the minds on earth? questioned Tony. ‘Could they speak to me?’ wondered a curious Tony. ‘I wonder what they would say if they did speak to me. I wonder.’
Having a mind free from the clutter of television, in a house filled with books and the voices of authors, Tony felt his mind changing into a new creature with a new desire to read all of the books that he could get his hands on. He was becoming trapped into a new life of ideas instead of things. He was beginning to see himself as a reader of books, to learn everything that he did not know. He was slowly deciding to read at night, instead of stalking other people’s houses so he could steal material junk to make his gang happy.
His gang would never care about him if he was ever caught and he had to go to jail or to prison. He suddenly saw himself being surrounded by steel bars and other inmates who were not lucky enough to be trapped in a house fill of books. He saw himself being surrounded by prison guards who were telling him what to do and when to do it. He started to realize how none of gang members would ever visit him in prison. He would be alone, just as he is now, except for the difference between the bookshelves and the steel bars. He saw himself visiting the jail library for books to read. He saw himself being forced to read books in prison because there was nothing else to do. Instead of a nice leather chair, he would be sitting on a cheap used cot or steel bed with a thin pad on it. He would be trapped in jail instead of a house, with no way of escape, except for books.
In no time at all, Tony saw himself visiting the jail library for a book to read, instead of visiting a public library to borrow a book to read. He saw himself trying to mentally escape the prison life, and then he saw himself truly escaping the thieving life. He realized that in no short time, he was going to start reading as soon as he could escape from the trappings of the book house, as long as the police were not waiting for him when he found a way out of the book house. But in any case, he simple saw the simple difference between the jail library and the house and public library: steel bars versus freedom.
Tony had began to wonder why his parents did not collect books. He also began to wish that they had started to collect books so he would have started reading at a younger age. After he had realized the importance of owning a book collection, he also realized that he would be starting a book collection for his own personal library. He knew that he would have a book collection so his future children would be able to read up on any subject they desired. He knew that unlike his parents and gang members, he would teach his children how to read and then force them to read in no uncertain terms.
He knew of so many gang members who ended up in jail, just to find themselves reading books to past the time. Reading books like caged animals, as if they were making up for lost time in their childhood. Tony remembered one older friend who Tony had visited in the local jail. When Tony asked him what he did most of the day, his friend said he read a lot. Which of course seem ironic to Tony. Some people who did not read as children or adults ended up being locked up in a steel bared cage with books in their hands.
He felt himself becoming a new person; a person who did not want to steal another material item his earthly life. Instead, he felt his mind desiring the world of ideas of all the topics that were located in all of the books he had seen. He could not steal the books ideas, but he felt as if he could feel them. How could a soul steal ideas that were located in books? After all, writers of ideas write their words and ideas in books for all people to read; to capture new ideas within the readers minds?’ thought Tony. He had entered a world where all true thinkers of all topics had dared to enter; the realm of knowledge and understanding.
A person’s mind could not be stolen, nor could a person’s soul. He lifted up his hands to simply touch the books covers, as if the hard covers had some sort of magical quality that might be leaking from the inside pages of the books. Yet, everyone knows that the magic of any book lies within its pages, under the book’s cover; just as a soul lies is hidden by the mask of skin and bones called a body.
Even as his fingers rubbed against the books, his whole body felt the importance of the physical book, just as his soul was beginning to feel the magic of words and ideas that were open for all to read, to comprehend, to apprehend, to understand, to know. Tony had found a new world. He felt like a child again. A child who was free to explore the worlds under the sunshine. He was possessed with a new sense of vitality and excitement. Moreover, he felt as if his soul was feeling the soul of the thinkers and writers who wrote to save the souls of all human beings who were lost in the darkness of their souls, by the darkness of ignorance.
Tony giggled softly out loud with a new goal in his life. He still hoped that no one was sleeping in the house, but he now knew that a new future and a bunch of idea worlds awaited both his mind and his soul. He started to feel the ideas of the past and to think about the ideas of the future. Again, his mind felt the need for searching the important ideas of life, instead of searching for physical items in people’s homes.
He started to softly slide his feet forward and his hands rubbed against each book cover on one bookshelf. His eyes glances at titles he could never have imagined existed. ‘Why oh why did not anyone tell me that there was more to life than material junk? Why oh why?’ thought Tony.
Along the way, some unseen force bumped into Tony. Or Tony bumped into it? An unseen wall or obstacle. Tony felt the two invisible hands on his head, as they forced his head to turn towards one specific book. "Some Metaphysical Laws Of The Divine Life and The Life of A Metaphysics." By: an unknown author. He pulled the book from the bookshelf. He causality, but cautiously sat down on the cool wooden floor. After he sat down, Tony opened the book to the table of contents.
1. Why life is grand.
2. What you need to succeed as a human being.
3. The path to eternal life.
4. The universe is not what it appears to be.
5. "With all thy getting, get understanding."
6. Books are a good place to start.
7. Why your mind is more important than your body.
8. The laws of transforming your mind and consciousness from being trapped in the darkness of ignorance to the infinite possibilities of knowledge; the knowledge of the Infinite Intelligence called God, and its spiritual laws.
Tony stood up and put the book into his now official backpack book bag. As he felt the crowbar, he took it out and placed it on the bookshelf to replace the book. He quickly walked to the rear door. Tony grandly smiled as the saw the DOUBLE SIDE BOLTED LOCKS on the rear door. He simply turned the key to open the rear door to freedom. Tony walked out of the book house knowing that the gang would never obtain his last stolen item as he gained his freedom from ignorance and gangs.
* I posted this story on Sunday. On Tuesday, this story was posted.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21213352/
By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr.'s Ambidextrous Brain + Spiritual Mind.
The house sat alone, on top of a lonely hill, as an unprotected temptation to any thief. Tony sat alone too, in the valley night after night, being tempted by the house’s unspoken desires. Sooner rather than later, Tony mustered up the courage to enter the trap of his own demise, although he knew it not. From a distance, Tony saw only the dark windows during the night hours, as if no soul lived in the house. ‘Surely, no one must be living there, leaving the house’s items unprotected.’ thought Tony.
The issue never emerged within Tony’s mind that maybe his mind and soul was as dark as the house’s windows, so he was not afraid to enter the house with no lights. Being spellbound by the unknown, he could not shake the urge to enter and explore the unknown world of a single standing, seemingly lonely house. The housed seemed to be inviting him in for a visit.
Tony had walked in darkness all of his life; almost from the moment of his birth. He had never seen the light beyond the darkness that surrounded his life, or within his own mind and future. Even though the sunrise rose every morning with the hint of the metaphysical light of wonder, he walked on earth with little wonder in his soul or mind. The metaphysical light of wonder was always within reach of Tony’s thoughts, but he knew not the way or the path to the light of wonderment. He felt as if he had something called a soul, or something other than a skin and bones body, but he never saw it underneath the light of daylight; of that powerful sunlight.
But being a thief in the nighttime, he missed most of the daylight since he mostly slept throughout the daylight. Being a soul walker of the night, he had seen the guts of so many houses that he had seen so many of those nice and normal household items people could own if they worked to make money to purchase household stuff. Even if they never had a hint of the guiding light that would lead them out of darkness of their souls. It seemed a simple dilemma really; the light versus the darkness; just as the sunlight versus the darkest moonless nights for all creatures of the earth.
While most people slept at night, searching for their dreamy adventures in their dreamworlds, or to simply rest for their next day of sunlight, Tony was searching for his own dream of an peopleless house; but a house filled with goodies that he would keep or sell for money. Tony always felt that houses were plainly devoid of a soul when they were empty of living people, like owners and the owners families. Wood and nails put together to form different sized boxes for one purpose or another, so people could live and rest from the world, day or night.
Tony always carried a thick steel crowbar to pry open a window or a door. He knew that he could use it as a weapon if he needed to defend himself from a homeowner who was defending his house from a thief. Tony did not grow up with thieving parents; nor did his brothers and sisters steal. Tony never dreamed of becoming a professional thief, but he called himself a good amateur thief since he had never been caught by either the police or the homeowners; at least not yet.
But sometime, a few months before he was to become an adult, an uncaring gang friend dared Tony to use his crowbar to open a window to the old lonely house on the lonely hill. The dare was to stay in the house for only five minutes. At which time, Tony was to leave the building with only one item. It was part of a gang test, but the gang was always testing. Tony did not hesitate to unlawfully enter a house without the owners permission, because he always followed the gang’s dares because he felt that the gang was more important then losing his freedom or his soul.
It was a moonless night when Tony was dared to unlawfully break into the lonely house, just for the foolish fun of it, just for the foolish challenge of it. The cool winds were blowing wildly through the dark air and around the already chilly Tony. But Tony was dressed with warm black clothes, to be prepared for the chilly guts of the lonely house. He could barely see himself in the night’s shadows. As he walked up the house, he felt his heart increase its pumping action, as his mind was telling him to turn around and pump his feet out of the yard. Two silent voices within the mind of Tony; each voice was a different future for Tony; although he knew not what each future would be for him. One voice said go into the lonely house, the other voice said turn around and run away.
He looked at the house, guessing that it was supposed to be empty of people. But he could not be sure if the house was empty or if people were in it. He knew that the gang had played jokes on him before, with their own sense of humor. They were always looking for a good laugh, at the expense of Tony. But Tony never wavered from their challenges. Tony always wanted to satisfy the gang no matter the result. Even a jail sentence was not a concern for Tony, because he was foolishly unaware of the law of unintended consequences.
As Tony grabbed the crowbar out of his book backpack, he felt his body sweat with cold fear as he looked around the yard. Something seemed strange, but he could not put his finger on it. Yet, he slowly lowered the crowbar to the windows bottom edge and he very slowly pried open the wooden window. Pushing the wooden window up as high as he could push it, he lifted one foot to step through the window, and then the other foot. He knelt down on the cold wooden floor, just to get his mind settled before he began roaming throughout the house. He listened through the house’s silence, but he heard only silence. So Tony closed the window so as not to bring attention to the house with an open window. Tony was trying to be careful, but sometimes being careful can still change the future of one’s life.
Tony held onto the steel crowbar, just in case he needed a weapon against an attacking dog. With the other hand, he grabbed his flashlight and he turned it on. The flashlight’s beam lit up the room. Tony felt like he was temporally safe when he saw the books on the bookshelves. ‘How am I going to find something valuable in a room filled up with books?’ thought Tony.
He stood up and he looked down the aisle of books. He started to softly walk down the aisle of books with his beaming flashlight lighting up the way for him. He knew that he needed to bring something back to the gang as proof that he completed the dare for the gang. He was thinking about a diamond ring or a gun or maybe some cash from a wall safe. He knew that he was going to have to search for something worth some money, so the gang could sell it at a pawn shop.
Walking through down the aisle of books, on both sides of him, he realized that he had never seen so many books in his life. The bookshelves went all the way to the ceiling. Tony was beginning to think that he was in a library, but how could the lonely house be an even lonelier library. It must have been a book room for a very rich guy who loved to collect books, so thought Tony. The rich guy most own better items to steal. Or could he?
So he continued to walk to the next room. He opened the glass door, and he saw many more tall bookshelves with books stacked as high as the ceiling. He walked to the next room and he saw a kitchen pass the next room of books. Next to the kitchen was a room with huge leather chairs and a few sofas. He began to feel comfortable, for many reasons. He was starting to get hungry and tired. He saw huge leather chairs to sit down to rest for a while. And he realized that maybe he would not have to steal anything for the gang, at least for this night. ‘I could always take a book for them. Then the joke would be on them.’ thought Tony, as he noticed the wooden stairs.
The wooden stairs teased his eyes with real thieving possibilities. So he started to walk up the stairs and he carefully and slowly took one step at a time, just to make sure the wooden stairs did not squeak. After all, all thieves know how one squeak of any kind could wake up a sleeping dog. And no thieve wants to deal with a sleeping and especially an awake dog. When he reached the top of the wooden stairs, he noticed the rows and columns of books on the left side of the hallway. They exactly echoed the rows and columns of books on the first floor.
But he noticed the brass signs on the bookshelves ends. So he walked down the lightly lit hallway, only to see the black letters on the brass signs. One after another: History, Economics, Religions of the World, Art, Music, Math, Science, Law, Politics, Psychology, and on and on and on. He could not believe it. ‘What am I going to do, steal a book?’ he asked himself. ‘How was he or they going to make any money with a book? What kind of house was this anyway? Who buys a house and fills it up with books? How could there be books in every room? Did one person read all of these books? I bet there are books in the bathroom too!’ Tony silently giggled at that last thought.
He was beginning to feel as if no one was in the house, so he started to feel at ease as he began his walk down the wooden stairs. Tony was still very careful with each step he took; so he lightly stepped down on the wooden stairs to sneak a listen to the stair’s squeak before the squeak entered the higher air currents of the house. As soon as he started to walk down the wooden stairs, he felt a change in the houses air currents anyway. He felt it was time to leave, so he hurried back to the window from which he had entered the book filled house.
The window was waiting for him as he tried to lift the wooden window up. But it was stuck. It would not budge. So he reached for his crowbar out of his unofficial book backpack and he pointed the steel edge towards the bottom of the window edge. His arm’s muscles tensed as he felt nothing, except the new sweat on his forehead. He could not wait any longer to get out of the house, so he grabbed onto the steel crowbar with one sturdy hand, all fingers tightly holding the instrument of destruction. One flick of his wrist, he swung the crowbar into the window. His eyes opened as the steel crowbar bounced back towards his body. He gripped the crowbar with both hands, and with his two arms, he straightway aimed the edge of the crowbar into the window again. Again, it only bounced back, only harder this time. The sweat of fear began to bubble up on his forehead as he thought, ‘Who protects their books?’
Tony headed towards the front door. Heck, he thought. It should be easy enough to just walk out of the peopleless house. He crept passed the rolls of bookshelves, towards the front door. His body went limp as he notice the seemingly unbelievable sight before his eyes. DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS. Not only one, but two. Tony quickly froze as he guessed that if the front door had DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS, then the rear door probably had DOUBLE SIDED DEADBOLT LOCKS too. And if one window had unbreakable Plexiglas as one window, then every window probably had unbreakable Plexiglas too. Tony walked to each window to try to pry them open, but to no avail.
Tony quietly walked over to the refrigerator, opened it and grabbed a drink. He listened intently for any sounds which might have indicated someone had woke up, if anyone was indeed inside the building. After he sat down in a oversized soft leather chair, he put up his feet and relaxed. He felt as if his mind was becoming sleepy, as if he was starting to dream without sleeping. He felt the air become cooler and cooler, as if an air conditioner was on, but he could not hear any sounds throughout the house. It still seemed to be empty, except for the books.
Trapped inside a house with nothing but books, Tony began to feel something new about the house and about himself. He had never seen so many books in his life. He never knew that some people actually like books for all kinds of reasons. To discover other people’s adventures, to learn about new ideas of life and death, of honor and self, to explore new worlds and universes. To find the God of all .To find one’s mind too. Tony’s mind began to realize that there were other possible lives beside his own life of being a thief. He started to see another life for himself, separte from the life of being a gang member; if that is called a life.
The books and the authors started to speak from the great beyond to him. Tony sat still in the huge, leather grand chair to listen to the authors from the great beyond. He closed his eyes to calm himself down; and to calm down the author’s voices from the great beyond, even from the voices from the books themselves. ‘Could the voices of authors speak to the minds on earth? questioned Tony. ‘Could they speak to me?’ wondered a curious Tony. ‘I wonder what they would say if they did speak to me. I wonder.’
Having a mind free from the clutter of television, in a house filled with books and the voices of authors, Tony felt his mind changing into a new creature with a new desire to read all of the books that he could get his hands on. He was becoming trapped into a new life of ideas instead of things. He was beginning to see himself as a reader of books, to learn everything that he did not know. He was slowly deciding to read at night, instead of stalking other people’s houses so he could steal material junk to make his gang happy.
His gang would never care about him if he was ever caught and he had to go to jail or to prison. He suddenly saw himself being surrounded by steel bars and other inmates who were not lucky enough to be trapped in a house fill of books. He saw himself being surrounded by prison guards who were telling him what to do and when to do it. He started to realize how none of gang members would ever visit him in prison. He would be alone, just as he is now, except for the difference between the bookshelves and the steel bars. He saw himself visiting the jail library for books to read. He saw himself being forced to read books in prison because there was nothing else to do. Instead of a nice leather chair, he would be sitting on a cheap used cot or steel bed with a thin pad on it. He would be trapped in jail instead of a house, with no way of escape, except for books.
In no time at all, Tony saw himself visiting the jail library for a book to read, instead of visiting a public library to borrow a book to read. He saw himself trying to mentally escape the prison life, and then he saw himself truly escaping the thieving life. He realized that in no short time, he was going to start reading as soon as he could escape from the trappings of the book house, as long as the police were not waiting for him when he found a way out of the book house. But in any case, he simple saw the simple difference between the jail library and the house and public library: steel bars versus freedom.
Tony had began to wonder why his parents did not collect books. He also began to wish that they had started to collect books so he would have started reading at a younger age. After he had realized the importance of owning a book collection, he also realized that he would be starting a book collection for his own personal library. He knew that he would have a book collection so his future children would be able to read up on any subject they desired. He knew that unlike his parents and gang members, he would teach his children how to read and then force them to read in no uncertain terms.
He knew of so many gang members who ended up in jail, just to find themselves reading books to past the time. Reading books like caged animals, as if they were making up for lost time in their childhood. Tony remembered one older friend who Tony had visited in the local jail. When Tony asked him what he did most of the day, his friend said he read a lot. Which of course seem ironic to Tony. Some people who did not read as children or adults ended up being locked up in a steel bared cage with books in their hands.
He felt himself becoming a new person; a person who did not want to steal another material item his earthly life. Instead, he felt his mind desiring the world of ideas of all the topics that were located in all of the books he had seen. He could not steal the books ideas, but he felt as if he could feel them. How could a soul steal ideas that were located in books? After all, writers of ideas write their words and ideas in books for all people to read; to capture new ideas within the readers minds?’ thought Tony. He had entered a world where all true thinkers of all topics had dared to enter; the realm of knowledge and understanding.
A person’s mind could not be stolen, nor could a person’s soul. He lifted up his hands to simply touch the books covers, as if the hard covers had some sort of magical quality that might be leaking from the inside pages of the books. Yet, everyone knows that the magic of any book lies within its pages, under the book’s cover; just as a soul lies is hidden by the mask of skin and bones called a body.
Even as his fingers rubbed against the books, his whole body felt the importance of the physical book, just as his soul was beginning to feel the magic of words and ideas that were open for all to read, to comprehend, to apprehend, to understand, to know. Tony had found a new world. He felt like a child again. A child who was free to explore the worlds under the sunshine. He was possessed with a new sense of vitality and excitement. Moreover, he felt as if his soul was feeling the soul of the thinkers and writers who wrote to save the souls of all human beings who were lost in the darkness of their souls, by the darkness of ignorance.
Tony giggled softly out loud with a new goal in his life. He still hoped that no one was sleeping in the house, but he now knew that a new future and a bunch of idea worlds awaited both his mind and his soul. He started to feel the ideas of the past and to think about the ideas of the future. Again, his mind felt the need for searching the important ideas of life, instead of searching for physical items in people’s homes.
He started to softly slide his feet forward and his hands rubbed against each book cover on one bookshelf. His eyes glances at titles he could never have imagined existed. ‘Why oh why did not anyone tell me that there was more to life than material junk? Why oh why?’ thought Tony.
Along the way, some unseen force bumped into Tony. Or Tony bumped into it? An unseen wall or obstacle. Tony felt the two invisible hands on his head, as they forced his head to turn towards one specific book. "Some Metaphysical Laws Of The Divine Life and The Life of A Metaphysics." By: an unknown author. He pulled the book from the bookshelf. He causality, but cautiously sat down on the cool wooden floor. After he sat down, Tony opened the book to the table of contents.
1. Why life is grand.
2. What you need to succeed as a human being.
3. The path to eternal life.
4. The universe is not what it appears to be.
5. "With all thy getting, get understanding."
6. Books are a good place to start.
7. Why your mind is more important than your body.
8. The laws of transforming your mind and consciousness from being trapped in the darkness of ignorance to the infinite possibilities of knowledge; the knowledge of the Infinite Intelligence called God, and its spiritual laws.
Tony stood up and put the book into his now official backpack book bag. As he felt the crowbar, he took it out and placed it on the bookshelf to replace the book. He quickly walked to the rear door. Tony grandly smiled as the saw the DOUBLE SIDE BOLTED LOCKS on the rear door. He simply turned the key to open the rear door to freedom. Tony walked out of the book house knowing that the gang would never obtain his last stolen item as he gained his freedom from ignorance and gangs.
* I posted this story on Sunday. On Tuesday, this story was posted.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21213352/
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About Me
- George D. Patnoe., Jr!!!
- United States
- When I was in college studying International Economics/Finance, I was also wondering how to develop a more powerful brain. So in 2001,I began a very specialized ambidextrous brain exercise program, for two hours per day,for many years. Those brain exercise began with me writing out words,mostly verbs, with both hands in different patterns.That developed into dual handed sentence writing to longer stories and dual handed drawing exercises.Details are for future books.I did these two hour brain workouts as a personal experiment to restructure my brain's neurons for the purpose of making my brain stronger for writing and language development; for logically creative storying writing.As far as I know, I am the only person in the course of history to have developed these ambidextrous hand/brain exercises.The purpose of these ambidextrous brain exercises is to strenghten both sides of the brain for language skills development, and to connect both sides of the brain together for language skills development. There is a very logical neurological reason for using two hands to write and draw as brain exercises. I also draw with both hands. 52 Stories is my testament!