Living with a blue aura

Checking out a post that came by my vision, I took a test to see what color my aura is. An aura is "an invisible emanation of vapor; a field of energy visible to certain persons with psychic powers", according to Webster's New World College Dictionary. It is the essence of the person, place or thing. Before I took the test I already knew mine was blue.

Way back in 2000 or so I was manning a booth for Grants Good Samaritan Center at a community event. Out of the blue a Native American lady began talking to me. She said she had been assigned to watch over/protect me until I was ready to be on my own. She went on to share that she had been in my bedroom at night, sitting in a rocking chair in a corner of the room. The window was open and I was crying. Now most people would have called a cop to lock up this strange being, but not me. I not only listened to her I later followed her to her vehicle, a pink jeep, to finish our talk. Among other things she said that my aura was blue and added that I should keep it that way! The communication with the "lady in white", as she called herself, was short lived. She made me nervous and I decided that I could very well take care of myself. I released her from her assignment and never heard from her again. The meeting is still a very sharp memory.

A blue aura is associated with the throat chakra and a person possessing one is thought to be caring, loves to help others, sensitive and intuitive. Finding out this information right about the time that I began finding my own voice in my community is more than a little interesting today. Looking back I see that my aura has been blue all of my life. I also see that along the way it got tangled up with my ego, which is energy picked up from others. In the process I lost the clarity of my purpose for being here.

Yesterday while editing a manuscript called "Journey of an Enlightened Egotist", which is waiting for further direction, I noted in the archives it was once called "Cut the Crap". Today that fact makes me laugh because it is exactly what I had to do to get real.

Also about a week ago I backed away from Facebook feeling that nobody cared if I was there or not. Hey maybe I was right because in that week not one person bothered to ask where I was. It is sometimes funny how the truth of the matter bops you right in the face when you aren't looking. Dipping my toe in the water I shared a post that came through my newsfeed, then a poem that had come to me in my mail. It was at that point that I realized it didn't matter who if anyone responded. My purpose is to pass along what comes "through" me. It is what makes me happy! What happens after that is no longer my business.

Because my aura had gotten tangled up with junk I had begun to think it was my responsibility to not only pass on information to help others, but make sure people followed my insights. Wrong!

With all the writing related gifts I have it certainly makes the fact that I live with a blue aura understandable and at times very gratifying. I think I'll just keep what I have been given and get on with my purpose for being.

Most precious gift

Yesterday's post reminded me of an excerpt from my first published book, Wake Up!. It was called "Most precious gift" and I would like to share it with my readers today with the hope that it might inspire a positive perception of the gift of life.

If you are alive and breathing, whomever you are, whatever your origin, sex or age, there is a gift you share with everyone whether you want to or not. This gift is invisible, has no scent, makes no noise and can't be touched or tasted. It is the most precious gift we have and without it we would cease to be. We all have an equal amount, no matter where we live, how much money we have or whether we are dependent or independent.

Neither a high I.Q. nor a high paying job grants anyone more of this gift than anyone else. It cannot be loaned, bought or stolen from another. We all have 1,440 minutes in each day we spend on this planet. How we choose to use these minutes is an individual decision. We are not born with a road map or a list of rules. Good or bad the decision is up to us. No one can make it for us.

It is interesting how many people with titles assume their time is much more valuable than those without. Adults often think their time is more important than a child's is simply because they are adults. Nationality, tradition and training have taught some men that their time is more valuable than a woman's is. If the world ended right now, none of us would have time left to worry about it.

Every moment of every day we all have the opportunity to help others by sharing a part of ourselves with everyone around us. If we realized time could run out right now maybe we would be kinder, smile more, share a thought or help another. Wouldn't it be wonderful to spend every moment celebrating that we have it instead of worrying about things we don't have and probably don't need anyway?

How we decide to use our allotted time is far more important than who our parents were or how many material things we feel we need to be happy. We can choose to be negative, bitter and hateful or positive, grateful and loving; taking all opportunities to extract good from every experience.

Why so young?

Early Monday morning yet another young person, 23 years old, moved on to another realm. She was driving home on the interstate when the driver of a semi truck fell asleep and abruptly ended her life. It leaves me wondering why so young?

I didn't really know the young woman, but I do know her father and step-mother. It must really shake up one's world to have a child leave earth before the parent. That's not supposed to happen, but it does. I am grateful that I have not had this experience.

If we had a crystal ball and could see into the future a bit would it change how we treat others? If we knew how little time we had would we stop making such a fuss about the little things that happen in our everyday life? Would we be more accepting of things that don't please us, knowing that we all have our own purpose and what others do say and think is really none of our business?

At my advanced age it is sometimes hard for me to understand why I am still here and much younger souls are not. When things like this happen I still ask why so young?

If you don't like it speak up!

Lately I have been getting terrible service from my internet provider. It takes forever to download anything and sometimes that isn't even possible. In an attempt to correct the problem a new modom was installed. It worked, sort of, for a short time. After calling another provider I discovered that mine is the only one available for my area.

Next I called Century Link once more to ask what it would cost to upgrade my current service. I was told- nothing. What! I have been paying for crappy service that could have been upgraded for nothing. So why didn't anyone tell me?

My son's response was, "Since you didn't complain they assumed you were happy with what you were getting."

The rest of that story is that by 5:00pm on July 15th my internet service will be upgraded to a speed 10 times greater than I am now getting for about half the price I have been paying.

A similar situation is occuring with Facebook. Lately I am not getting posts from friends that I want to hear from and my news feed is clogged with posts from people I don't even know and ads for unwanted products. In the past FB has offered much useful information that I have passed on to others in one way or another. It has also provided many close relationships with people whom I would never have had the opportunity to otherwise meet. It just isn't the same as it was when I first joined the site in 2009.

Following a recent move by a very good friend I have decided to back off for awhile. After communicating with her I see that I too am wasting too much of my time on the site. Those few friends that I really care about can be reached in other ways. There are phones, emails and hey even hand written notes and letters. If anyone cares enough to contact me my number has been in the Grants, NM phone book for about 35 years.

The lesson learned, I hope, is that if I don't like something I need to speak up and change it instead of just sitting back and taking it.

Coming home

Another article waiting publication in the Cibola Beacon.

Although, Sergeant Major (Retired) Jeffrey A. Gunn US Army Reserve, graduated from Grants High School in 1979 he was born in Seattle, Washingon and lived in California before moving to Cibola County, New Mexico with his family in 1976. He recently moved back to the area to begin a new life.

After graduating from high school Gunn chose to enlist in the Army because, "I was always interested in military history and the like."

Gunn spent twelve years in the regular Army, serving in Germany, Italy and finally Desert Storm in 1990-1991. He then joined the Army Reserve. As a reservist he was a Technical Instructor in biological and chemical defense and a Staff Trainer.

From 2004 to 2009 he was training units to go to Iraq and Afganistan. 93 days before his retirement would have become effective he was released from active duty. According to Gunn, "It was all about money and had nothing to do with my performance. During my active duty years I had been promoted twice and received the Meritorious Service Medal".

After being forced to retire and desperately seeking employment, Gunn spent 2011-2012 as a civilian contractor working for the military as a safety instructor in Kuwait. He summed up this experience as, "A hot place with a lot of dust and extremely bad drivers".

Since 2009 Gunn has owned and operated Oro Grande Firearms Training in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a Certified NRA (National Rifle Association)) instructor. He is certified to teach, pistol, rifle, shotgun, personal protection and Refuse to be a Victim classes. In addition he is a Range Safety Officer and an OSHA Authorized General Industry Trainer. As soon as he can obtain certification in New Mexico he will offer Concealed Weapon classes.

One of the programs he is interested in promoting is the Refuse to be a Victim class. It has nothing to do with shooting guns, but teaches ordinary people how to be safe in their homes, while traveling, protecting their children, in the workplace and even safety tips for senior citizens in nursing homes and persons with disabilities. With current situations as they are it is a class every citizen could benefit from. According to Gunn, "People need to know what to do before something happens, not wait for it to happen".

Recently moving back to Cibola County, Gunn is now available to teach any of the above classes and can be reached at Jeff.gunn@orograndetraining.com or his office 505-240-8250.

Writing Camp appreciation

The third annual children's Writing Camp, recently held at Future Foundations Family Center in Grants, NM was a success due to the assistance received from local residents who donated their time and talents to help inspire our students to write. They are Rosanne Boyett who focused on editing, Beth Klotz who shared her art and taught the students how to create in water colors, Peggy Lewis whose wonderful imagination introduced fables, Lisa McNeill brought along her passion for music, John Martinez from Rockies shared some of the recycled wares from his shop and Jeff Gunn whose 34 year military career gave the students an opportunity to be reporters.

This year two students, Colin Stoughtenger and Aniston Gibson, were also given an opporunity to be instructors for a day as a reward for their past camp attendance. We also acknowledge, Ejay the rescue dog, who caused more than a few smiles among the students on the last day of the camp as they wrote stories about his first year of life.

Along with all this help we also offered poetry, picture prompts, fiction and non-fiction, card prompts and captioning funny animal pictures. No idea was turned down to encourage the students to write.

The 2014 writing camp committee extend a huge thank you to everyone involved. After it was all over we agreed that the reason the kids like the camp is because there are no rules and we encourage them to be creative and write what makes them happy. The only rule we have ever had is RESPECT. Students are not allowed to make fun of anything another child writes or reads.

Several of the parents thanked us for offering the camp, one adding "it is a lost art". Facilitator John Martinez commented, "Wow I wish there had been something like this when I was a child".

The writing camp committee is looking forward to adding new ideas in 2015 and would appreciate and be grateful for any help offered by the community.

Note:

The previous article was written at the request of the Cibola Beacon editor, Donald Jaramillo, and I was told it would be in todays paper. He apparently could not find the space. So being the resourceful writer that I am I published it myself.