The Stuff Y'all Call News Is Fascinating

 

You don't realize what you're surrounded by until you remove yourself from it.

What now seems like a hundred years ago, we stopped getting TV service. We'd had Dish, couldn't afford it, it was turned off, and we never went back. Before service was interrupted, we had four kids in the house and that thing was going at least 16 hours a day. 

Shortly after it happened, I realized what it really was; God removing television from our lives. A whole world of research as well as life was opened up when we just stopped watching, as my dad called it, "The Idiot Box". I finally understood his viewpoint. The news has devolved to the point of painful for us now.

Don't fret, if there's news, we find out about it. We haven't cut off the news of the world, but we are really careful about how it is relayed to us.

 One of my favorite ways to get a quick rundown of the current events is Yahoo homepage. It's not overwhelming. It doesn't shout at me. It isn't too in depth. I can scan the headlines and go over to stories I'm interested in. It just works for me.

So, I'm over on Yahoo homepage when I come across this article in my feed.

Apparently there is some woman who is known on and from the internet as the 'green dress girl'. And for some reason, USA Today thinks her opinion warrants an article that is showing up near the top of my 'news' feed.

Not for nothing, but the fact that anything to do with fashion shows up in my feed is laughable to anyone who knows me even a little bit. But I digress.

I had no idea how intellectually bankrupt our society had become; that this drivel is considered news by a major, national print outlet.

With everything going on in the world, and call me selfish, my own life, who in the *bleep* has time to give a running rat's tail about some random person's opinion... about anything? Much less calling it news.

This is just about as nonsensical as Snoop carrying the Olympic torch.

Yeah, I said it. 

I like Snoop, but he didn't belong at the Olympics. What does the man have to do with sports besides running from the po' po' in his old school G days? 

Green dress girl is as news worthy as Snoop is a gifted or exemplary athlete.

I want to know how we got here.

I mean, I understand I'm Gen X and a lot of today's society doesn't make sense to me. Normally because I use logic and common sense, and that approach has mostly gone out of style.

So, I can see the how of how these viewpoints could have come around. Our educational system doesn't teach thinking anymore; it teaches memorization. Because non-thinkers are both easier to control and more cost effective for the people making the rules. Again, I digress.

What I don't understand about this ridiculousness being called a 'news' story, is that when these non-thinking, young adults go out into society and tell more seasoned with life experience people, such as myself and others around my age, why their opinionated selves think this is a 'news' story (or for that matter, anything else, they're *bleepin* kids); how is it that the rest of us out there go along with their uneducated, immature choices?

Who in the *bleep* put these short-sighted people in charge?

It must be the same people who changed A&E's format from Arts and Entertainment (i.e. A&E!) to an unending stream of murder on tap and 'cam' shows. Quite obviously a blatant case of bowing to bottom line over common sense.

James Lipton is rolling over in his grave, believe you me.

I'm sure it's also due in part to the entire machine of 24 hour stations and multiple news outlets. I guess on slow news days, they have to dig deep...? 

That doesn't excuse you A&E!

This is some follow-the-money-watch-the-birdie-conspiracy-stuff to be sure!

Should I go all Oliver Stone?

Who is benefitting from our societal decline into idiocy while surrounding us with low vibrational fear?

Too on the nose?

How have women's rights regressed 50 years with women sitting on the Supreme Court?

How is Trump, a now convicted felon, still in the presidential race?

The country has gone bat crap crazy!

Nothing makes sense to those of us who still have the temerity to think!

I'm enraged! The future of our country is at stake!

But, in all honesty, I'm also Gen X. Our hands off philosophy as a generation is part of how we got here. The other part is greed, but again, I digress.

Considering current society, I am more likely to attempt to get a Netflix comedy special to air these viewpoints than I am to seek out office in order to correct the legislation that led to the errant thinking of a television-soaked society of paid-for, programmed lemmings. 

That, and I grew up in New Jersey. Which makes me acutely aware that they'd shut me up and I'd be lucky to only be discredited instead of winding up in the East River.

So, I guess, I'll pretend to fall in line with the rest of the lemmings despite my capacity for independent thought by 'just doing me, Boo' as the country implodes from it's poor choices.

If you want or need me, I'll be sitting over here rolling my eyes and saying in my most Gen X New Jersey Sarcastic delivery while I shake my head, "The stuff y'all call news is fascinating." Maybe I should turn it into a meme.

Dear Taylor Sheridan, RE: YELLOWSTONE

 

Hello and happy Sunday, Taylor Sheridan,

You don't know me from the man in the moon, but I've been writing my whole life. I just read an article regarding the upcoming series finale to what has become my latest favorite television addiction, the saga of Yellowstone.

The article stated that my addiction has become your fever-dream nightmare, and as reported literally everywhere, is missing your Hollywood heavy. 

Other plot holes were also mentioned. I personally overlook those because you, Sir, are the Jackie Collins of TV; and I bow to your prowess as a "hook 'em in and keep em watching" kind of writer. When I stated my addiction earlier, I could not give a more accurate description of my behavior since my first watching of S1, E1 a few months ago. 

Yes, a few months ago. Yes I understand that Yellowstone has been out for years.

Nothing personal. We just didn't do TV. We were "The Unplugged". I'm so old school, we used to learn about what movies were out by renting DVDs from the new releases rack at the library. We didn't even have home internet until 6 months ago. We had cellphones with unlimited data plans. Our only streaming service was premium YouTube and that was mostly because the app came preloaded on our phones. I learned everything I needed to know about what was going on in the entertainment industry from Yahoo homepage at work.

Well, in March the business I was working for closed its doors permanently. I'd been there for five years and was now over 50. I had been working for 30 years, and upon prompting from my husband, decided a break was in order. I settled into unemployment, homelife, mental healing, and probable redirection. I had wound up in work life misery and my only 'job' became unplug from the job market, find authentic me, and figure out next steps.

We stopped going to the library and started rotating streaming services by month and eventually, I stumbled across Yellowstone. I had, of course heard of it, and knew the actors and your name, but I had never watched it before. Funnily enough, I had rented season one over a year ago from the library, but returned it unwatched. 

But that night in late April, I turned to my husband and said, "Eff it, there's nothing on worth watching. You wanna give Yellowstone a shot? It's got Costner... 10 minutes?"

Ten minutes is about our watch time of anything new. If we don't like it in ten minutes or less, it's pretty well over. My Netflix Continue Watching category is ridiculous.

He didn't look enthusiastic, but said, "Eh sure. Ten minutes"

That was around 9 pm and we had the commercial free version of Peacock that month. 24 consecutive Yellowstone hours later, we had been up for 36 hours. We slept for 8 or so, and went back for another 24 consecutive hours.

My daughter called me, and I quote, "A feral college student." Yellowstone had released the addict in me and I was in full junkie mode. 

As of this writing, we're on a maintenance program. Just like an alcoholic might slow down and not get hammered drunk every night, but they still drink enough to get a little tipsy several nights a week; we're the same. My alcohol is Yellowstone.  I've signed up for a year's worth of Peacock with ads to slow myself down, and am on my fourth watching of the series. It's on regularly, and we nearly never watch just one episode.

Okay, so, fangirling over.

Let's get down to business. As a writer, I have some helpful ideas as to where you need to go to close your plot holes, and tie up all of the ends in whatever number of shows a half season equates to. By the first half of the season, I'd say eight.

Open S5, E9 on the front lawn of John's house; Beth and Jaime pointing guns at each other and verbally going at it. From Beth's vantage, camera points toward Jaime, have John step in facing Jaime (back to camera) instinctively 'protecting' Beth because he's convinced Jaime won't physically hurt him.

With the camera close-up on Jaime; Jaime focuses on John, we watch flashbacks run across his face, and with a resolve born of inner peace and his own brand of righteousness, Jaime makes a conscious choice. Jaime shoots and kills John. 

Immediately, Beth takes Jaime out with every bullet she has, and collapses at her dead Daddy's side in tears of grief and relief.

With that, Gretchen Mol's Evelyn Dutton is returned in flashback/spectral to both welcome John (now played by Josh Lucas) and redeem herself to Beth (and the fans!) by both forgiving Beth and explaining her wretched behavior towards her only daughter. She can even scoff at Jaime about being from 'killer's blood' to remind everyone that Jaime isn't a blood Dutton anyway. That puts to bed multiple storylines, and opens up a wide array of growth and potential in the final storytelling arcs of the remaining characters. 

Summer has to 'save' Beth with her eyewitness testimony since she's there under house arrest. The new Governor is named by a mourning Senator Perry when she returns from Washington for John's funeral. The new governor, at Lynelle's urging, pardons Beth for murder of Governor John Dutton's killer, and commutes Summer's remaining sentence. Summer returns to California with a new appreciation for Montana ranching and glad to put a close to her 'Dutton chapter'. The new governor looks into many candidates for AG. Some are sympathetic to ranching, some are not. No replacement is actually named. Lynelle returns to congress.

With her neck freshly off the chopping block, and her biggest adversary in the ground, Beth takes off running. She somehow spins the PR around Jamie's death putting every ugly detail that comes to light about Yellowstone squarely on Jaime's now dead doorstep.

She follows up by convincing Kayce to put her business plan into action regarding the steak operation she found out about; thereby saving the ranch financially. She is at peace with her move as she tells the sky, "I saved the ranch, Daddy." At this point, she stops living for John, and starts living for herself and Rip and the future legacy of Kayce's family.

With the Yellowstone finally out of it's precarious financial situation; Rip and the cowboys can come back to Montana, and Kayce and Monica can take over running the ranch and plan for a future.

Kayce and Monica, at Beth's insistence, move into the main house and are determined to, as earlier stated in a bathtub scene, "put a kid in every room." They wind up happy, in love, and moving forward in a 'new direction'. Kayce also remains Livestock Commissioner because he sees the value of it for the ranch and his ranching neighbors. Monica is able to do something to permanently help the Res in some way now that Yellowstone is under her and Kayce's control. 

This will keep Thomas Rainwater in office; defeating the evil Angela and her candidate with the help of Mo. Maybe some 'hidden on the Res' resolution. Additionally, this storyline will give Monica some peace about helping her people with real consequence; as well as giving her character substance so she doesn't just dissolve into the background as Kayce's pregnant wife or Tate's empty-nester mom. 

Tate and Carter pal around, get girlfriends and outlay their plans for the future. Tate wants to go into counselling because of his previous trauma, and Carter wants to become a veterinarian because he's bonded with the horses in his time living in the stables and, the biggest factor, it will help the ranch and the family that saved him.

Rip grows very comfortably into his forced fatherhood of Carter and imparts life wisdom into Carter's and Tate's lives. He and Beth have to decide whether to rebuild his burnt down gift-from-John house and stay at the Yellowstone, or demolish the property so it can revert to its indigenous state, while Beth and Rip move on to somewhere with no memories. 

In the end, they decide to demolish the property and build a new house on the ranch at the location Rip found for their wedding. Beth loves the compromise; it's still part of the ranch, but its free of memories, completely theirs from the ground up, and they both find peace, joy and healing there while they look forward to the new direction of Yellowstone.

Kayce realizes he needs Rip's loyalty to John's vision to help him run the ranch. Kayce outlines, that he will be the new way of thinking and Rip will be the old way of thinking and between them both, they'll figure out the best course of action for the ranch as the issues arise. With the new business plan in place, they're both starting off as 'new' and will need each other's perspectives to make things work.

Kayce tells Rip this at the dinner table with John's seat empty, and Monica and Beth in attendance. They all agree, in a new-direction-moment, that business will be discussed at the dinner table. Beth doesn't storm away from the table for maybe the first time in the series. Peace reigns within the remaining family against the outside forces.

Jimmy and Emily are now married. They come up from the Four Sixes to bring horses along with the return of the cowboys. When they leave, they will take Carter with them so he can go to vet school, while learning to work in a ranch environment as a veterinarian assistant under Emily. 

Jimmy and Lloyd have a reunion. Jimmy has grown into the best version of himself and imparts his Texas learned wisdom to Lloyd. It gives Lloyd an answer he had been searching for, which stuns them both and bonds them together further.

Walker and Laramie of course get married to mirror the actors' real lives. They decide that it would be best if they go on the road so Walker can do singing gigs while Laramie competes across the country. They ask Kayce about leaving before the rest of the cowboys return because Walker doesn't want to be there when Rip comes back. Kayce agrees and approves.

Colby dated a girly-girl in the year the cowboys have been gone. This helped him figure out, that he loves Teeter. She tortures him about his dalliance with 'Miss Priss', until she finally tells him she knew he'd miss her lovin'. The ranch hands tease Colby about his relationship with Teeter and he defends it fully. Afterward, Colby chases Teeter and they both love every minute of it, sometimes to the nausea of the other ranch hands.

Ryan and Abby have maintained their relationship despite his shipping out to Texas. She got gigs in Texas while he was down there to facilitate seeing him, and her career skyrocketed. They now see each other rarely, but make it work. He becomes one of the ranch's top men due to Rip's recommendations after the Texas year, and He and Kayce being livestock agents together.

And last, but not least, there's Lloyd. Lloyd and Gator have become close in the time since Rip left with the cowboys. Lloyd needed to talk to someone who wasn't a 'youngster ranch hand', and with everyone gone all the time, Gator needed someone to appreciate his amazing biscuits. They bonded over coffee and cooking after Gator suggested that he make breakfast for the ranch hands in order to have someone to cook for. 

 Rip will get to tell Lloyd that he's in charge of the bunkhouse permanently (he ran it while Rip's crew was in Texas). So, Lloyd will be the new Rip and Ryan will be the new Lloyd.

Later, Rip will visit the bunkhouse, to let the hands know that Lloyd is now in charge, Lloyd will quote the imparted Texas wisdom to the other ranch hands. Rip will ask astounded at the soundness of the quote, "Who told you that?" To which Lloyd will answer simply with a smile, "Jimmy". Everyone is stunned into silence until Rip finally says with an even bigger smile at his long time friend, "The man's right." to a round of agreement by all. The scene ends with the hands toasting Jimmy in his absence and Lloyd's promotion. Rip then leaves the bunkhouse and it feels permanent.

Alright, Mr. Sheridan, sir, I think I've got your story lines pretty well handled. Now, if you would just get back to your super-addictive, Jackie Collins style delivery of them, that would be perfect.

With utmost respect and anticipation of November,

Gigi Seezie

Raising My Frequency Ruined My "Life"

Have you ever heard the saying, 'I know just enough to be dangerous'?

I'm the type of person that understands the complexities of concepts. But due to this strange ability to just 'get' the subject, I also rarely dig deeply into its details.

Another older saying, 'a jack of all trades, but a master of none', makes me feel seen.

I'm so very thankful that My Man is a detail king and a master of many subjects because I'd be lost without those details.

But I digress...

When I decide that a subject is worth investigating, I will go down rabbit holes until I burn out on the subject . I'm sure, like many people these days. The advent of hyperlinks gave birth to rabbit holes. One more link and away we go like proverbial Alice in Wonderland! 

However, I tend to try to implement what I learn on my Wonderland excursions, and that's where things get whompy.

So, I was going down a Tesla quote rabbit hole about frequency, and came upon Solfeggio tones and binaural beats. I found that some of the Solfeggio tones correspond to the chakras and can be used for clearing and activation and away I went.

Then I found an older video from Dr. Wayne Dyer, in which he discusses the vibrational rates of different emotions. 

For anyone around in the 60's and 70's... VIBES, MAN. They are real.

If you aren't aware of any of this, the short and sweet is that emotions like shame, guilt and fear are low vibration, while love, joy, and peace are high vibration.

I'm sure that just from the listing of where you would be emotionally, it's obvious that the higher vibrational states are where you want to be. Not only do they feel good, but they are closer to divine energy.

It stands to reason then, that they are stronger vibrations. Think about it, you feel weak when you're fearful, but strong when you're happy.

If you ever wondered why it's so hard to do anything when you're in lower states of emotion, now you know why. They drain your vibration until it's so low that it's difficult to peel yourself out of bed. Think despair, another low vibration emotion. 

When you're happy or in love; boy howdy! You nearly bounce out of bed ready to start the day, don't you? High vibration aids your bounce!

So, now I know about vibration. I want high vibration. High vibration comes from what we would call 'good' emotions like serenity; got it!

Then I returned to looking into frequencies because they work together with vibration and energy right - the original Tesla Theory that opened up this particular set of rabbit holes to Wonderland!

So, seven of the nine Solfeggio tones can work on your personal, physical energy centers. 

By now nearly everyone has heard of chakras. That is what they are; your specific energy centers. Everyone has seven main chakras that essentially run from your tailbone to the top of your head. Beyond that there are more, but that's advanced chakral work. The seven are what most people think about when they use the term chakra.

Aside from these beneficial Solfeggio tones (frequencies) there are other frequencies all up and down the numerical scale and, come to find out, they all have an effect on the human body.

To me, that now means that frequency matters about as much as what I eat in a day, or where my emotional vibration stands to my over-all health.

I was very happy and intrigued about this because I love to sing. I don't consider myself a good singer, but I love it. Put on music and sing my favorite songs word for word... I have spent many housework hours and Friday nights this way. I'm not picky about an audience. It's really just for me. I love it.

But now, this rabbit hole! 

AAAKKK! Because I found out that even though the tone of 432 Hz, which is very soothing and healing and does wonderful things for your body and environment was thrown over in favor of 440 Hz.

The 440 Hz tone serves as the internationally recognized standard for musical pitch. It was 'discovered' by a German physicist in 1834. It was implemented as the musical standard in 1936.

8 Hz! So what? What's the difference?

440 slows your heartrate initially until you become accustomed to listening to it. It's also been shown to make people just a liiiiiittle bit less inhibited and a liiiiiittle bit angrier. Even though your ears don't know a difference, your body does.

And guess what else? The difference makes you more susceptible to the machinations of advertisements, as well as picking up on fear in the broadcasts - you know, like when they read the news.

Well Crap! I don't want to be mind controlled by my radio.

Plus, after working with all of the manifestation tutorials out there, I know my words matter. Like really matter. That which you focus on will come to be, right?

And in one rabbit hole filled week, it all comes together inside my brain.

If I keep listening to Teddy Smalls' brain worm of a song, I Lose Control, and sing it, I'm asking the universe to deliver my being out of control as well as all of the  longing contained therein. Plus! I'm in the wrong frequency which compounds the negative effects on my body, especially if I sing it with feeling.

Oh booger! Darn near everything on my playlist references drinking (which I already gave up; not starting that again!) or losing a partner or needing something that they don't have.

Well BLEEP!

I don't want ANY of that stuff in my life! 

It was one thing when I didn't know any better, but now I do! 

So, then I think, well, I'll just go over to the Christian music and see if there's anything I can find that I like. The content HAS to be better, right?

Well...

Most of them talk about Jesus. I believe in Jesus, yes, but I was raised Catholic. We don't worship Jesus, per se. We worship God and recognize the Trinity. So I'm not sure I should be singing that either. And, to add insult to injury, most of them are singing about what they've done wrong or don't have in their lives also! They just add in a part about Jesus saving them from their sins.

Okay, that didn't work. Let's see...

I tried to do the, "But singing brings me joy, which raises my vibration" loophole, but when you add in the Universal Law of Correspondence used in manifestation, where the words really, really matter - I knew I was cooked.

I changed the words to Teddy Smalls, but it's hard to remember to incorporate them, and my brain worm keeps singing the original no matter how many times I try to learn my adaptation.

I tried the same loophole of joy with Yellowstone, and that one's a little easier to justify since I'm not saying their scripts word for word.

I've learned to mute the commercials for self-preservation.

I'm not into sports, a lot of fiction novelists write trash and my interest base in entertainment is dwindling away to nearly nothing.

So far, raising my frequency has ruined my life.

I'm attempting to adapt. 

Choose your words carefully, but pray for me!

Beryl, You Angry Little Bugger

I know it's been seven days since I posted. 

It's been quite the seven days.

Remember that post about hurricane season? Yeap, that booger, Beryl rolled right up to our front door on Monday morning. And unlike the trees, we're still standing.

We woke up sometime around 3am with no power, rain pouring on the roof, the house (single-wide trailer to be accurate) shaking, and the violent sound of the wind that was doing the shaking roaring in our ears.

There may have been a little bit of  a tornado involved. I'm not completely for sure, but the path of tree damage seems a little whompy for what I'd assume to be a straight shot wind from a hurricane.

Regardless, plenty of older, thicker, well-watered trees were snapped off like brittle toothpicks. Our storage shed, (which we filled to capacity for storm preparations) was clearly lifted up at the front and set back down on the cinderblock, because it now juts up at a clearly wedged and alarming angle.

 We barely care. After five hours of praying that the house (trailer) didn't blow away, we're just happy to be here. And if I'm honest about it, we were truly so blessed!

Plenty of people had much more damage than we had. If the trees in the picture above had blown right instead of left, I wouldn't be here right now. No exaggeration. So many people in far larger cities went without power longer. Ours came back on by nine, Monday night. Same with internet; ours was back up by four pm on Tuesday.

I can't say we don't have a little PTSD. The power went off for about ten minutes yesterday and we went into immediate action like it was Beryl 2.0. The rain starts and we cringe. The thunder starts and we stop still and assess.

We're still trying to get the house back to rights after all of the accommodations for our powerlessness and messy weather. The landlord had crews out this morning at oh-early-thirty to cut up and dispose of all of the fallen trees. Between all of us in this little enclave it had to be at least 20. And those were just the ones he is responsible for; there are plenty more down our street that he is not.

It's only six days post-storm. It feels like it was both yesterday and forever ago all at the same time.

When does hurricane season end again?

My People

So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

I'm not very good at relationships.

I'm not a big talker, and as an INFJ personality type, I tend to psychoanalyze people as I listen to them. I also need a good bit of alone time, so I seem to lose track of the people that float into and out of my life.

However, there's something not a lot of people know about me.

 I had a severely broken eardrum over 20 years ago, and I don't always hear what's actually been said. Sometimes the results are hilarious. Sometimes confusing. Sometimes its so obvious that I've heard something incorrectly that I ask for a repeat. Sometimes not.

Before the injury, I had what friends called, "Mom hearing". Whispers were useless in my presence; sometimes even through closed doors.

Immediately following the injury, I was frantic about not being able to hear correctly and eventually found coping mechanisms like not having music playing loudly from behind me because then it would drown out people who were talking in front of me. 

It was definitely a learning curve.

After all of these years, I've come to the conclusion that I hear what I'm supposed to and I've made peace with the hearing loss incurred by the broken eardrum.

But now I'm getting older and my age is furthering my auditory incapacity.

I've come to understand why my grandparents played the nightly news at what seemed like volume 7000. They didn't have widespread closed captioning then. Besides, my grandparents wouldn't think they needed them because they weren't deaf. They were hard of hearing due to age.

Unlike them, I have no pride when it comes to the semantics of it.

I use closed captioning all the time. Watching TV is useless without it for me.

I also mute all the commercials, but that's another story.

Since I'm not officially categorized as deaf or hearing impaired, I don't have one of those telephones that close caption the calls. Usually, no worries, but I'm not as good at making out what people are saying on the phone as I used to be.

I already wasn't good at relationships, and now I'm answering things that weren't even said and asking questions about what I misheard... 

It's AWK-WARD!

So, I tend to keep up with most people on social media or by text. Where it's all typing and emojis and reactions. Where I can show my love language is memes as I try to impart smiles into their days.

And hopefully all of 'my people' far and wide know that they're still my people to me. 

That I still cheer your birthdays, milestones and successes. That my heart hurts for your losses and the pains you share. That I pray the absolute best for you all whether you know it or not. And that if I ever considered you my friend, you will be one in my mind whether we've spoken once in 40 years or you don't even remember there was a me.

I remember you; and silent, introverted me is still in your corner even if you didn't know it.

So you've got that going for you. Which is nice.

Not So Happy Hurricane Season

 

Image credit: The Weather Channel

As Beryl barrels towards The Gulf of Mexico, those of us in my area are basically Craps dice-shooters shouting, "Come On Yucatan Peninsula!" and waiting for the dice to land; hoping upon hope we won this toss.

I know that's a terrible thing to say; wishing a storm on anyone. Because I really don't want them to get it so much as I don't want to get it here. And, as per The Weather Channel's picture above, today's cone of uncertainty means Beryl is potentially heading our way. It'd be wonderful if it just died in the Gulf.

In 2008, I went through Hurricane Ike. My ex, our son and the cat evacuated after boarding up the house, cutting all power to it, and making sure all vehicles and electronics were up high just in case. We left in a near panic as we were mandated to do, and upon returning home over a day later, found that we had one broken tree limb at the back fence line and the milk in the fridge hadn't gone bad. I had no idea how blessed we'd been. 

I had come from an area that didn't get hurricanes very often (NJ), went to one that didn't get them at all (CA), and I'd now come through one in Texas with such little damage that I couldn't even comprehend what a severe hurricane could do.

But after 2017's Hurricane Harvey literally turned my home (at the time) into an island - no exaggeration, I'm not looking to do any other hurricanes ever again ahhhthankyouvurymuch. 

During Harvey (in the days before and for a few days after), every business that wasn't a gas station on higher elevation shut down. Everyone else in our neighborhood and the surrounding area evacuated. Our teenaged children bugged out to various friends' houses - in other words, evacuated.

My Man and I assessed and prayed, and we stayed put (affectionately known in Texas as 'hunkering down in place'). We only lost power because it was turned off by the power company due to the safety hazard of severe flooding in the area. We were powerless for a couple of days. In a lot of areas it was weeks. 

As I said earlier, we were literally an island. 45 miles from the coast we looked like we were the coast. 30 yards in every direction was water. I could barely comprehend the scene before me, let alone have imagined it before hand. And yet, somehow, we were completely calm and just rolled with the events as they unfolded.

We built a massive outdoor light that my son later dubbed 'the Walmart light' due to it's height and brightness, and we hooked it up to a generator to light our solitary corner of the world. We made breakfast the next morning in cast iron on the barbeque pit while calling family members to assure them of our survival. We were so grateful that we told everyone we spoke to how highly blessed and favored our situation was as rescue workers were launching their shallow-bottom boats from the side street next to our 'island' house. 

Eventually, My Man was able to make his way to civilization and came across nearly 100 rescue workers from ALL OVER! Some from other areas of Texas and many from out of state. They had battled all of the storm conditions to show up and help our little, thoroughly devastated area and had congregated at our local truck stop since it was on the highest ground.

The truck stop, in addition to the mini-mart section, has two restaurants inside. However, McDonald's, the larger of the two restaurants, had been shut down in preparation of the storm; and the smaller restaurant, Chester's, couldn't accommodate that many orders or people. Our rescuers were without food, which may be common for them due to disaster condition protocols. But My Man had talked to several of the rescuers about how far they'd come as he thanked everyone he spoke to for coming, and their inability to get fed did not sit well with him in the slightest.   

So he calls me at the house and asked me to reach out to the community via Facebook (he doesn't do social media) to see what I could do. I had no idea what my posting could do because I'm not very FB popular locally, but I made a public post and prayed that it would reach somebody, anybody who could help these people. 

By the Grace of God, it got the ball rolling, and the community came through in spades!

 One person tagged another person until the whole county knew what was going on! And despite their own hardships, every team member from that McDonald's who was able to make it to the store showed up. And they got to work until all of those amazing, imported God's Angels! people were fed. 

Pictures were taken with rescue workers and McDonalds employees. Laughter was had by most, if not all. And healing began despite the massive amount of work still to be done in the recovery effort. We didn't know it at the time, but we were all truly changed forever. 

I have never been so humbled to be involved, so proud of any group of people (My Man and the McD's employees) or so grateful to another group (all of the rescue workers) in my life.

Harvey had taken Wharton County, and it had not been kind. But we were still standing; somewhat disheveled, yet proud survivors of the assault with our hospitality in tact. I wonder what Horton Foote would have written about his hometown after that.

Seven years later, the residents of Wharton County approach Hurricane Season with a mix of cockiness (nothing will be worse than Harvey) and underlying concern (but what if it's worse than Harvey). Understandably, we're all grateful anytime the weather is less powerful than predicted; even if we act like we knew it would be.

Now this week, here comes Beryl all over the news reports because it had become a Category 5 storm. So, even people without regular tv service (such as us) are hearing about it everywhere in Texas. 

Did I mention, they only added a Category 5 as of this year? Ya know, just a side note tidbit for those of you unfamiliar with hurricanes.

It devastated Jamaica earlier today when it made landfall as a Category 4 storm just like Harvey did to us in 2017. 

God bless them each and every one! May your recovery be speedy and complete, Jamaica (and everywhere else it goes)! Amen!

 NOAA is predicting an unusually high number of hurricanes this year.

The family chat already contains weather reports, evacuation talk, and offers of places to stay if they're needed. We're hopeful that none of the offers will need to be exercised.

Good luck to us all this not so happy hurricane season.

Die Beryl, DIE!

Prayer

 

As I stated in an earlier post, I believe that people should pray whenever, wherever, and however they are led to do.

My upbringing was not particularly 'churchy' per se. My sister and I were taught Bible stories. And there was one huge Bible in the house.

If we went to church, it was with our grandparents. We'd ride up the road to St. Gen's where my parents, aunts, and uncles once upon a time went to high school.

The stained glass was stunning and a Catholic mass was quite a site to behold for a child. Surrounded by saints and dark, old, polished wood while some man in long shiny robes spoke... and spoke... and spoke until his words disappeared and all I could make out was the cadence and tone of his delivery.

We didn't go often. Prayer answered, thank God! I detested services. 

But the church! The architecture was fascinating. I have enjoyed wandering in and out of Catholic churches when there are no services going on for years. Just sitting in the stillness and talking to God in my head, soaking up the quietude and finding a singular comfort there in the pew.

Since we didn't go to church much, I just learned to pray to God anywhere. I remember praying to God on the toilet a lot as a kid. 

Don't judge; God made us and it was quiet in there.

Point is, no one taught me to pray. My child's mind understood the concept of God that I had been taught and I just started praying anytime I felt like it.

Over the years, I came to talk to God like my BFF. 

I reach out any time or place and let it rip. The good and the bad. The thankful, the problem, the joy, the pain, the gratitude, the disappointment, the angry, the wonderful. 

All of it. With complete honesty of emotion. 

It's God; lies are useless, and I personally would think insulting.

Sometimes I cuss. Sometimes I let God know I am angry with Him. One time, I told God I was done with praying, and Him, and all of it.

I lasted two hours.

He knows I get dramatic with Him sometimes.

I always come back and apologize.

He always forgives me.

I am the way He made me and I don't always get it right (being hugely generous with myself here!) but I pray. A lot.

And I know that I know that I know that God listens.

It doesn't always look the way I expect it to, but my prayers get answered. I've seen it time and again, and I have no doubt about that statement whatsoever.

There are two things I've learned about prayer in my experience.

    1. You have to be specific enough to really get what you're after, and generalized enough to allow God to put it together in His way and in His timing.

    For example: if you tell God you want to hit tonight's lotto with these specific numbers, you may be too much in the details for it to come together. However, if you back out of the details and instead ask to be debt free with millions in the bank; well that's something He can work with to make happen. You may just hit that lotto, then again, you might come up with a business idea that creates that outcome for you more quickly than it should have been possible. 

    And if you say, "Well it's God, he should just do whatever I ask because He's omnipotent and everyone on the internet says I'm a creator!" 

    I reply, "Have you spoken with God or just asked for stuff? If you talk to Him, have you done everything you've been told to do by God before you ask him to blindly just answer your prayer word for word? And isn't that mighty disrespectful anyway? It is God after all. You may need an ego check, just sayin'." 

    Whoopsie!

    But also, realize this: He'll choose the way to make it happen that has the most widespread benefit to you. You must understand: we, from our human viewpoint see things from a ground level vantage point, God, however, sees things from the mountain top. 

    Any tourist with tell you that you see infinitely more of New York City from the top of the Empire State Building than from the middle of Times Square.

    Leave the details to God, He'll handle them far better than you can.

    2. Prayers are valuable, have genuine weight, and, if done correctly should help as many people as possible.

    I think that's part of what's wrong with society today; we pray just for ourselves, or maybe some loved ones or a neighbor. Possibly a quick perusal of the prayer list at church, unless you just leave the prayer list to the designated church intercessors.

    Make your prayers more powerful, by making them exponential.

Some examples I use:   

    "Thank You God for returning everyone I love, have ever loved, and will ever love home safely and well from wherever their travels take them this day."

    This may even cover you as far as praying for your enemies, since a lot of our 'enemies' started out as cherished people in our lives. So, this is potentially a nice bonus for your prayer life, and not as emotionally draining as listing people individually.

    "Thank You God for blessing every hand that had anything whatsoever *to do with any food or drink I am offered or consume this day (or *to do with this meal)."

    Take a minute to rabbit hole down this prayer - this covers so many people, it's mind boggling (farmers, ranchers, people in the factory that made your plate, the person that did the inventory at the grocery store and ordered the product you bought, the person that hired the last person I mentioned, etc.)! Powerful indeed!

    With a specific set of people in mind pray, "Thank you God for giving anyone with any kind of earthly authority over us, Your mercy, grace, kindness, generosity, and love towards us." or "Thank you God for actively healing every area of our lives."

Regardless; whatever you pray, however you pray, whenever, wherever you pray, and lastly whomever you pray to... Just pray. 

Pray because we are all interconnected. Even science now says so.

Individual threads all interwoven into the tapestry of our existence. Every thread matters. Every thread. Your thread, my thread, his thread, her thread, their thread, it's thread, previous threads, future threads...

Prayer raises the vibration of the planet which helps EVERY THREAD.

And isn't that really the point?

Introducing Gigi Seezie *UPDATED*

Gigi Seezie is a collection of rarities in a single body that has lived over 50 years. I have cultivated my beliefs from a series of learned viewpoints, and belief structures from around the world filtered through the perspective of life in American society. But, maybe not what you may picture as stereotypical American society (see the various Disclosures in the header tabs).

First of all, While I was born and raised as a Gen X in New Jersey, I have now lived equal amounts of time there, in Northern California as it produced Millennials, and  Southeast Texas during the advent of Gens Z and Alpha. I have gained perspectives from all of them. A rarity in the current climate of the America.

One of those learned perspectives is: you really need to understand yourself in order to make the best use of your gifts, and build the happiest, most fulfilled life you can in this lifetime.

That being said, while my belief structure is primarily Bible based due to my upbringing, there are so many contradictions in the book!  I have come to believe that between it's actual writing by man's hand, and the council of Nicaea, that some of the Bible's stipulations may not have been from God so much as a way for the church to control it's followers.

The origins for this idea came about many years ago when I was talking to a devout church-going friend about someone gifted with psychic powers. She informed me in a near panic at the subject that the Bible specifically warns against psychics. To which I replied, "Why would God make people with psychic gifts if they are wrong for using them?"

That just didn't make sense to me, and stuck with me uncomfortably until I felt it was my duty to do some investigation. This led me down more rabbit holes than I can list or number. After all of the years and areas of my personal research, some of the conclusions I've come to are: 

    1. Various governmental entities, world leaders throughout time, and the "Powers that Be" have two tactics when they want to disavow something: tell people that it deserves to be laughed at and disbelieved; or tell people to be afraid of it - the more afraid the better so the 'They' can supposedly save you from it. We need to take back our right to think in this country and there's a lot out there in society that is trying to keep you from doing exactly that. Check the facts of your beliefs whatever they may be. Do your own research, don't just accept the news or Google answer. It's lazy and 'They' are counting on it because they've kept you so distracted with the rest of everything in life.

    *"THINK! It's not illegal... yet."

    2. No organized religion has it right. They all contain some Universal Truths, but I feel like none of them encompass the entire truth. 

    Bottom line is organized religion was created by man. God wants a one-on-one relationship with you and He has no need of your money or your adherence to a specific location in order to communicate with Him. Speaking to God should be done however, wherever, and whenever you feel led to do so. Anyone who says differently is either trying to control you, get your money, or is a spiritual infant (or some combination of the three).

    If you're in a life threatening situation, do you wait for your spiritual leader to show up before you pray? NO, of course not! I rest my case.

    Therefore, my ideology is comprised of many beliefs that span several world religions. My advice to anyone on any sort of spiritual quest is to do what rings true within yourself, since we are all given different journeys and purposes within the tapestry of existence. Every thread is an individual woven into the whole. Concern yourself with your path, do your best to spread the light you carry within yourself, and don't judge others for the directions their path takes. Play nice and live well to the best of your ability. End of sermon.

    3. I believe everyone should learn about their astrology chart. It is basically your own personal instruction manual. I'm not talking about the horoscope in the paper full of basics regarding the sun sign only; it's a trivialization of astrology and is mostly laughable to... well, everyone.

     Your actual natal birth chart, however, is based on your date, time, and place of birth; and can give you a deeper understanding of yourself. Interestingly enough, similar to the Bible, your chart will reveal things anew time and again throughout your life should you choose to keep looking. Free charts are available at Astro.com and I've used them for many years.

    In my chart (pictured above), I found a Mercury Cazimi (super rare aspect formed when Mercury and the Sun are less than 17 minutes -not degrees- apart) which lends to communications genius of sorts. In addition, my Saturn is conjunct my Ascendant (again, super rare) which means that I showed up in this lifetime with heavy karmic debt. It also makes me fairly serious, and when I'm in a group of people, I'm often mistaken for 'the boss' by outsiders to the group. This, again, is rare for a Pisces since we are often portrayed as a stereotypical flighty creative.

    4. Similarly, doing a Meyers-Briggs test to find out your personality type is infinitely helpful in understanding how you process the stimulus of your life in this reality. I have taken several because my personality type is both the most rare, (INFJ) and the most often mistyped. The best free online test can be found at Truity. 

    I also found this group for INFJs when I uncovered my type, and it made me feel more seen than I expected. I now understand why I'm a complete junkie in my research until I feel I've learned what I needed to find out and drop the subject completely for another topic (among other things). I hope if you take the test, your type is as much of a revelation for you as it was for me.

    5. The language of the Universe is numbers. Understanding the meanings of the numbers can help you navigate life around you as well as more about yourself. There is far more to this world than what we see with our eyes, and it's one of the ways the unseen communicates with the seen. Several sources for numerology are available. I recommend older ones like the book, "The Spiritual Meanings of Numbers" by Belle Motley. It seems newer sources and websites rely on too much AI and make-it-up-as-you-go slap-dash for my personal research comfort level. 

    6. Tesla was right. The world and all of it's many facets consist of energy, frequency, and vibration.  When you are able to understand the simplicity of this concept as well as how complex it's effect on your life is, everything changes.

    One of the practices that uses this concept is Reiki (energy healing). I've been attuned to Reiki for many years, so when I stumbled across Tesla's theory I realized I already had a working knowledge of the energy concept and ran from there. If you are interested in becoming attuned to Reiki, I was told when I started learning about it that a genuine Reiki master will not charge a fee for attunement. I have seen a lot of pay sites since, but in my opinion that muddies the waters between the free-flow of  the healing energies and the motive to make money. So, I recommend a free attunement with a certificate which should show your lineage. I provided a link to one that attunes to two types of Reiki on a monthly basis, but please do your own research and use a site that speaks to you.

Now that you know all of that...

When I was originally touched by the Holy Spirit (a story in itself for another post) I asked what I was doing here - in this life on Earth. While I was expecting an answer like, "You're a mom" or some basic thing like that, I was instead told, by a small, still voice something that I would have never come up with on my own (which is one of the ways I knew that it wasn't me answering myself).

"You're a Philanthropist."

That phrase entered me with the full weight of understanding that this was my purpose. I was instantly happier than I had ever been and I smiled from the inside out for the first time in my entire life. 

I, of course, thought I would hit the lotto the very next day and begin to build libraries and hospitals. 

Well, I've held onto that phrase and the knowledge that my purpose was imparted to me by the Holy Spirit for over 20 years, and I've been a below-poverty-level member of the 'working poor' nearly all of my professional life. 

Turns out, the correct definition of philanthropist is: one who makes an active effort to promote human welfare. 

Not a syllable about money (funny how things like words get twisted into misconceptions). Clearly, money is not involved in my designation.

I finally figured out that with all of my 'rarities' and their various results on my person as a whole; the best way for me to be a philanthropist is to use the gifts imparted to me both within myself as a person and from the breadth of my experience and write (despite what my staid, conservative, wet-blanket Saturn says about the value of writing versus, say accounting as a profession). 

Therefore, I write here with the fervent hope that what comes from it will promote human welfare despite the world as it currently is; either regardless of or because of how rare my viewpoint of the world may be. 

Welcome to Gigi Seezie.

*"THINK! It's not illegal... yet." Eddie Griffin: You Can Tell 'Em I Said It, 2011

*UPDATED: And then I wrote a little book about praying big *wink*, and to streamline everything, I revamped Gigi Seezie, a pseudonym, and have put my own name to everything. Which, tbh, I had no intention of ever doing. I like being anonymous! It fits my INFJ and Pisces and every other thing right down to my toes. But apparently, I'm not supposed to lie about my identity. *sigh* So, for better or worse, Gigi Seezie is Aria Ziemian.