The Moment is about life-changing stories of 125 writers and artists… and me.
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Do you recall “the moment” in your past when something so significant happened that it was literally life-changing? If so, you’ll enjoy the 125 stories in The Moment, a book of “wild, poignant, life-changing stories from 125 writers and artists famous and obscure.”
In this book, edited by Larry Smith (of 6-Word Memoirs fame), 125 writers and artists submitted (very) short stories of a moment or an event that instantly changed their lives. Usually it was an awakened awareness caused by an unexpected event, an illness, the death of a loved one or a life-broadening experience.
Mary Elizabeth Williams takes us on a journey into her mind the day she gets the phone call that tells her she has cancer. In a single paragraph, while worrying about a writing deadline, Williams travels from “I guess this means I could die pretty soon” to “But who will pick up the kids at camp?”
Haylee Harrell describes the afternoon recess at school during which she learns that people can hate you because of the color of your skin.
Michael Castleman remembers the evening his mother refused to make supper because she was reading a book. He explains that his mother was devoted to the family, served meals like clockwork and never changed her routine… until she started reading Leon Uris’s Exodus. That’s when Michael recognized that books could take over your life while you are immersed in them. That’s when he decided to become a writer.
Hope Rehak recalls a day familiar to many of us. She was just twelve years old on 9/11 and wondered why her parents were glued to the television set. She can still hear the words they said to her: “They have to find someone to blame.” And she tries to hide under the blankets where the new world can’t touch her yet.
The Moment contains 125 stories of real people feeling their way through something they weren’t expecting, whether it was the event itself or their reaction to it. You can read more “moments” at SmithMag.net… and even submit stories of your own.
In fact, the book inspired me to look at my own life-changing moment. Here it is:
When I began my studies at a metaphysical center years ago, I had to take some of what was taught on faith. A portion of the material was so far outside my experience that, while I could intellectually get what they were saying, I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Until I did. See it. With my eyes wide open.
I was taking beginner classes, but many of my fellow students were way ahead of me in clairvoyant abilities. I’m still not particularly clair-anything many years later, but once in a while I’ll see or hear something that shoots my understanding to another level.
Like the first time I saw a purple head hovering next to my teacher.
All during our 2-hour class, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the large purple head floating slightly above and to the right of Karen, our course instructor. Karen was almost 6 feet tall, so seeing this apparition that high above her was quite remarkable. And the head itself was a slightly odd shape, larger on top by a considerable amount.
When I asked about the purple head after class, Karen cleared up the mystery. She told me that I was seeing her spirit guide, Abdullah, who wore a turban and always came through in the color purple. His head was so far off the ground because she always saw him sitting on a “flying carpet.”
This explained the strange shape on top of his head and the reason he was riding so high in the room.
Abdullah’s purple head was my first clear-seeing episode and by far the most dramatic. It helped that the details were verified by a trusted, highly clairvoyant teacher.
After you witness something that “isn’t possible,” you can’t unwitness it.
Now I knew for certain that other dimensions are filled with life and that they intersect with our own spaces and times.
What a springboard for an expanded viewpoint of Life… and a perspective that stretches to eternity.
Even now, I can see Abdullah’s head as clear as day, when I think about that first time. And it still blows me away.
What’s your life-changing story?
What story would you write for posterity? As Larry Smith says in his introduction to the book, “These stories hit us where we live.”
When I showed this story to my son, he was surprised because I’d never told him about it before. Until I started writing this post and saw myself sitting in class staring at Abdullah’s purple turbaned head, I’d almost forgotten the impact it had on my understanding of the multi-dimensionality of life. What I knew before was nothing compared to what I could glimpse behind the door that was just starting to open before my eyes.
The 125 stories in this book each have outstanding moments like this. And you can’t stop reading them. Even when it’s past your bed-time and you know you have to get up for work the next morning. They make you think… and remember. And think some more.
Chris Guillebeau’s book The Happiness of Pursuit shifted my perspective on aging
The Happiness of Pursuit
Have you ever read a book that set you on a whole new path in life? Or that joggled your sense of passion and purpose into practical action? I did… and I’m on a 30-year quest because of it… from age 70 to 100.
In 2014, I devoured Chris Guillebeau’s book “The Happiness of Pursuit” which documents Chris’s and other people’s “quests” – grand adventures that took them out of humdrum and mainstream and led them to challenge themselves, rediscover themselves and enjoy themselves.
The concept of quest and adventure became so tantalizing to me that ideas kept popping up as I was reading. I took notes and more notes… and then one idea overtook all the others and I knew what my quest was going to be.
People launch quests for a variety of reasons:
They are discontented with some aspect of their life (or the rut they’re in).
They feel a calling to do something, without sometimes knowing why. They just HAVE to do it.
They feel a need to test themselves in a bigger way.
They want to make a difference in the world.
They’re ready to put their money where their mouth is or to start their “bucket list” now.
A life-altering situation such as a job loss, illness or divorce startles them into action.
In my case, the “life-altering” issue was the thought/reality of my 70th birthday in June of 2015. As I read Guillebeau’s book and the stories of the quests begun by people 20, 30, even 50 years younger than me, I recognized that the very long, physical quests were not for me at age 69, when I first read the book.
But I also made a note of the dissatisfaction I felt about the way I was living life… it felt too safe and stale to bring about much personal development. Definitely not much adventure involved. And where was my contribution to the world, I wondered.
I realized that I didn’t want to fall into the rut of “old age.” I also allowed myself to see that what I really enjoy doing is reading and reviewing potentially life-changing books like this, and then posting my thoughts online, with the hope of inspiring others through my words.
Reading a book like The Happiness of Pursuit makes my mind fly. Guillebeau has inspired me to take action. And so I am. And it feels good. As Guillebeau explains, a quest is more than a personal growth project or fitness schedule or get-out-of-debt plan.
Quests have 5 key components:
A clear goal and a specific ending point.
A challenge, something that must be overcome.
A sacrifice of some kind. What are you willing to give up in order to complete your quest?
A sense of calling or mission that keeps you motivated to continue.
A series of steps, with incremental progress toward your goal. (It’s not an overnight sensation.)
Guillebeau emphasizes the importance of planning before starting your quest, to make sure you can handle it financially and emotionally. But he cautions readers to not get stuck at the planning stage. This is an adventure, after all, and the journey doesn’t come with guarantees. When you’re “ready enough,” just start.
That’s what I’m doing.
Reviewing thought-provoking books has now become part of my quest to cease feeling like an old fogey and start living an adventurous life again. Butt-kicking ideas will help me achieve this.
I’m also trying to figure out how to translate my fascination with “tiny houses” into an actual physical community for seniors and others with limited incomes.
My quest starts at age 70
My quest has a 30-year span, with the aim of keeping myself young in body, mind, and outlook from age 70 to 100. Anything past 100 is a bonus.
My larger challenge is to stay open to new ideas, to be willing to shift perspectives, and to learn new ways to keep my mind and body functioning at optimum levels. Oh yes, and to develop the discipline to practice what I preach.
Quests aren’t just for dissatisfied workers in cubicles. Society’s elders have lots to contribute and sometimes just need a way to focus their efforts. I’ve waffled long enough. Now I’m ready to get going.
A quest was just what I needed to launch me off the skinny branch and into the air.
I want to be a healthy, vital, active, interesting, adventuresome woman well into the next three decades of my life. Why not?
This sounds like fun to me, because it IS me to the bone. Playing with ideas, even if they’re other people’s ideas to start with. A book like Guillebeau’s The Happiness of Pursuit recharges – even rejuvenates – me.
And that’s the whole reason behind my questing. Making the years between 70 and 100 the most fun yet. I feel excited for the first time in ages.
As I write the words of this book review, I sip the “Magical Weight Loss Potion” that I energetically created a few minutes earlier, using Pam Grout’s suggestions in Experiment 8. I’m proving that my beliefs are changing my physical body through a harmless placebo (spring water) that I altered simply by using my personal energy and my intentions.
I’ve convinced myself that my magical elixir is the healing tool that will curb my nighttime snacking and cause a drop in weight over a 3-day period. Every time I pick up my glass to take a drink, I thank my magic potion for its good work. It feels right to do and, in fact, I’ll continue this activity for at least a month, to prove my point… and lose weight at the same time.
Grout cites example after example of how the “placebo effect” works in action. She makes me a believer… enough so that I’m telling the world about my magical potion experiment, enough so that I’m sure it will work.
And that’s the point of Pam Grout’s newest book E-Cubed.
A sequel to her highly popular E-Squared, E-Cubed continues to jostle our age-old beliefs about ourselves and the universe we live in. As a student of metaphysical teachings for 25 years, I was already pretty much in alignment with Grout’s ideas in the first book, but she explains things so clearly… and with enough scientific proof to really cement in the new ideas that I pre-ordered E-Cubed before it was released.
Of course, it’s tough to delete or even revise concepts we’ve had for decades, ideas and beliefs we grew up with and “rules” that are reinforced by churches, governments, and parents. Grout acknowledges this at the outset. And then hands over responsibility for belief restructuring to us, by means of 9 experiments that prove what she is saying.
Grout introduces us to Worldview 2.0 which shows us how the energetic world most of us can’t see is the foundation on which everything else rests. Scientists often call this energy “The Field,” and Grout explains in very clear language how we, as humans, can impact the energy around us – our life, in other words – by our thoughts, words and intentions. She points to the “observer effect” in quantum physics which says that it is impossible for us to look at something without impacting whatever it is we are looking at.
My spring water, for example. My conscious belief in its miraculous properties to curb my snack attacks has created a new elixir that is going to work as long as I believe strongly that it will.
I found the chapter on synchronicity to be quite revealing and underlined a few sections so I could find them easily when I needed a reminder that “coincidences are a glimpse into the underlying order of the universe.” We can never feel alone when the connectedness of all things aligns into solutions that help us out when a strong need arises. I’ve also heard it said this way: “The Universe conspires in our favor.”
Each of the 9 experiments is designed to prove a point, whether it’s “finding” money in the chapter on changing money beliefs or understanding that all of nature is sentient and could have messages for us, if we would just notice and listen.
The first 60 pages of E-Cubed present the theories that Pam Grout wants us to prove through her experiments. Like Pam, these are more than theories to me; they are more like a way of life. But for many, they are new (possibly disturbing) ideas that contradict many (most) mainstream teachings.
Who has ever told you that happiness is the big game-changer? Who urges you to start the day with “happy” music? Who claims that the more fun you have, the better your life will work? Well, Pam Grout does, for one.
Fear is such a motivator, one wonders why it’s so prevalent. Is it on the school curriculum? Is it the method through which businesses remain financially secure? Is it how governments maintain such control over people’s lives?
Pam Grout, in her two books, attempts to hand control over our lives back to us. She does this in plain language with convincing examples of how we gave so much of ourselves away. She isn’t into judging, casting blame, or advocacy. She just explains it.
And presents a few ideas of what we can do about it.
As a “senior citizen” in a culture that doesn’t value its elders, I’m all in favor of tapping into as much help as I can get from the field of infinite potentiality. I know it’s there; I’ve had personal evidence of it. But I haven’t got the hang of using it in a consistent way yet.
I’d like to get better at receiving messages from the unseen worlds, for example. Not because I’m preparing to cross over to where they are – not yet! But because I’m semi-retired and have the space in my life where I can do this now. Life is so full of possibilities – and I’m ready to experience and enjoy them.
Books like E3 remind me to expand my life’s options, rather than contract into the stereotype of old age. And, I can honestly say that I feel more fired up than I have in a decade or more.
Thom Hartmann reviews the “cycles of crisis” in the U.S. since the American Revolution
The Crash of 2016
In The Crash of 2016, Thom Hartmann documents why it is no longer wise to put faith in most elected politicians, or in our once-trusted institutions, especially the public media, banks, universities and the Supreme Court.
Maybe I’m more naive than most people, seeing a half-full glass, but the documentation in Hartmann’s book looks real, sounds scary, and makes me want to find a bolt-hole where I can make my own electricity and provide my own food. Soon.
Published in 2013, The Crash of 2016 outlines very clearly how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer… in fairly predictable cycles since the United States of America was founded.
Thom Hartmann claims that the U.S. is teetering on the edge of the “fourth great crash and war” in its history and that 2016 is the approximate timing for this to occur.
Hartmann presents a convincing case for this, citing eighty-year cycles between the three previous major crises faced by United States: the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression. Each event involved “horror and bloodshed,” but also subsequently brought about changes to the status quo that allowed America to grow and flourish.
The cycles all involved periods of oppression, followed by rebellion, resulting in reformation. When enough generations had gone by for citizens to have forgotten what happened during the previous crisis, the process repeated itself. Three times, so far, in this country.
Events of the 80 years since the last depression show all the indications that the fourth big crash will come around the year 2016.
The Plan to Destroy the Middle Class
Hartmann names names, too, from the economists who steered the politicians onto a slippery slope to the banksters who engineered multiple government collapses around the globe. He cites the U.S. presidents who pushed corporate agendas over the public good… including those who started with good intentions until threatened by the financial writing on the wall.
What horrified me was the idea that much of this destruction was planned ahead of time, including the obliteration of the middle class. Meetings were held, memos were written, laws were changed. “Economic royalists” effectively rule this country, says Hartmann, who gives examples of all of this.
Instead of a strong middle class with enough money to purchase goods and services, we now have a small wealthy oligarchy on one side and a growing class of people getting poorer by the year on the other.
Hartmann includes an interesting chart from the Economic Policy Institute that compares, graphically, the rates of productivity and wage growth between 1947 and 2010. The two indicators separated dramatically during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Since then worker productivity has increased significantly while wages have stayed essentially flat. When the Reagan tax cuts were implemented, corporate profits now went to CEOs who paid less in taxes than previously, rather than to the workers on the line.
Where to Point the Blame?
Clinton gets the blame for the upside-down balance of trade by removing protections for America’s domestic manufacturing industries. George W. Bush oversaw, not just the entry into two bankrupting wars, but also the deregulations leading to banking panics and bailouts and the housing meltdowns that lost people their homes and jobs.
President Obama, who began his term with such high aspirations, has been the object of a detailed opposition plan to derail any reforms he might put forward to help the middle class in America.
Hartmann says, “With the help of prominent media outlets, the Royalists, now a political minority, would engage in a scorched-earth strategy to defeat a coming Progressive Revolution, even if it meant crashing the United States as we know it.”
Enter the Tea Party, Fox News, the Koch brothers, the Mercatus Center, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s “shadow government,” Citizens United, and the Supreme Court’s decision to call corporations “people,” thus permitting them to finance election advertising (as free speech). Until this time, corporations were seen as legal entities requiring oversight by government.
As Hartmann points out, any foreign company, organization or government could, theoretically, form a U.S. corporation and, thus, influence elections through massive amounts of advertising. He points to Justice Stevens’ 99-page dissent of the Citizens United corporate personhood ruling, where the judge suggests that “the majority of the court had just handed our country over to any foreign interest willing to incorporate here and spend money on political TV ads.”
Thom Hartmann sees the reversal of this decision as one of highest importance (after the crash, when people come to their senses).
Hartmann’s main point is that we no longer have a democracy, as we once knew it. The strings are being pulled by concerns for self-interest, rather than the public good. The pocketbooks of the puppeteers hold more wealth than most countries’ GDPs. And it may be too late to reverse the situation before it all comes crashing down.
After the Crash
The good news? According to the previous 80-year cycles, the crash will wake people up. Some of the awakening is already taking place. In December 2011, for example, the city of Los Angeles called for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood, saying that money was not the same as free speech. Hartmann recommends returning the Supreme Court to its “original” constitutional authority, which it has overstepped.
Fundamentals necessary for a strong middle class need to be addressed as well, including health care, investing in bridges rather than bombs, strengthening the job situation, reducing debt, adjusting the tax codes, decentralizing the power systems, and reclaiming the “commons” of the country, which are currently being sold to corporations at less than their worth.
One suggestion that resonated with me was the concept of co-operatives. Hartmann’s examples of this trend were encouraging and I’ll be researching that topic in some detail.
Thom Hartmann doesn’t portray what life will be like during and immediately after “the crash of 2016,” though he gives clues with his observations of the previous three cyclical crashes. It won’t be pretty, at any rate.
Will we be fighting in the streets over food? Who of us will be living in tent cities? Or garbage dumps? When our money is worthless, what do we have to barter for the necessities of life?
Or do you think everything can carry on as it has been? Has the tipping point been reached? Or will we pull ourselves together to make/demand the necessary changes in the nick of time.
As an Amazon associate and Clarke Courses affiliate, I earn a fee from qualifying purchases. My Senior Side Hustle is designing for a print on demand site called Zazzle. I receive a royalty on my designs when you click a link to purchase on Zazzle.com. Thanks for visiting… I hope you found the info on my website helpful. –Barbara
