Home again home again jiggity jog

Not unlike the Valentine’s Day fiasco, there we were again sitting inside Einstein, my blue 1988 Ford Econoline van, just outside the entrance of Adaggios banquet hall where we, along with six other families, had an open house and party for our High school graduates. Carrie and I were about to get out of the van when (((click ’arrrrr tic cha tic))) the doors would not open, STUCK AGAIN inside the van within sight of our destination. These kinds of setbacks can be very discouraging when you’re working from a wheelchair. Carrie was able to tap the set pins out of the linkage with a hammer but mashed her thumb in the process- bless her heart. Without the pins the doors swung freely and the rest of the electronic functions for the lift worked just fine. For the ride home we locked ourselves inside the van and tied the doors closed with bungee cords. This make -shift solution worked well until we made our last turn into the driveway at home at which point the bungee’s sprang off, the doors flew open, and Carrie let out a loud wail like a banshee crossed with a screaming curse. She said later that she thought the doors were going to hit the fence post and take out the pine tree…

There Could Be Holy Fallout ~ Hafiz

We are often in battle.
So often defending every sideof the fort,
It may seem, all alone.

Sit down, my dear,
Take a few deep breaths,
Think about a loyal friend.
Where is your music,
Your pet, a brush?

Surely one who has lasted as long as you
Knows some avenue or place inside
That can give a sweet respite.


If you cannot slay your panic,
Then say within
As convincingly as you can,
"It is all God's will!"

Now pick up your life again.
Let whatever is out there
Come charging in,

Laugh and spit into the air,
There could be holy fallout.

Throw those ladders like tiny latch sticks
With "just" phantoms upon them
Who might be trying to scale your heart.

Your love has an eloquent tone.
The sky and I want to hear it!

If you still feell helpless
Give our battle cry again.

Hafiz
Has shouted it a myriad times,

"It is all,
It is all the Beloved's will!"

What is that luminous rain I see
All around you in the future

Sweeping in from the east plain?

It looks like, O it looks like
Holy fallout

Filling your mouth and palms
With Joy!

Rumi

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

Morning Smile

The soulful morning smile
is a treasure
of mind and heart.
In the morning,
the greatness of the mind
and the goodness of the heart
are inseparable...

Thank You Washington Irving *

Much like the fabled sleeper,
I too succumbed to the sweet
slumber during the latest installment
of Disney's Pirate movies. It's become a tradition
that Carrie and I take Jared and Andrew to see them.
We love Johnny, Geoffry, and Penelope,
and were thrilled to be able to catch another movie with our two sons.

Now I don't know if it's my age, or the fact that
I didn't get much sleep the night before,
or if by ability to suspend disbelief has simply diminished
so completely that... guess it doesn't matter really.

Being brought back to wakefulness by having your
girlfriend poke you in the ribs while saying
"Wake up Rip Van Winkle! you were snoring"
was far more entertaining that viewing the latest adventures of
Cap'n Jack Sparrow - and I dare say far more Pirate of me in a way anyway
So May Ye be Warned  All of Ye

Home Health Aides

I have a strange form of muscular dystrophy. I use a power wheelchair every day. I have home health aides who come to my house twice a day. One aide comes to help me get out of bed and run through a series of range of motion exercises to work out the rigidity and pain from contracted muscles. These aides also help me with simple tasks like bathing, grooming, dressing, meal preparations, and sometimes light housekeeping. My health aides are extremely valuable to me and their help enables me to have a higher quality of life. The (ROM) range of motion exercises help reduce severe chronic muscle and joint pain, encourages circulation, discourages muscle atrophy, reduces swelling, and keeps me from becoming a pharmaceutical junkie. The health aides help me maintain a certain level of freedom and independence while avoiding the nursing home as a place of residence.

The problem with home health aides is that there are very few good ones. The aides who are good at their job, who possess a compassionate, loving, helpful, attitude are absolutely golden. The majority of home health aides however are only marginally better than having no help at all. Many people are drawn to this particular profession because it looks like something easy to do. Some of them are burnouts, alcoholics, and or drug abusers who couldn’t possibly hold a job in any other profession. One reason for the bottom of the barrel employee pool is the low pay and no benefits. Another reason is the perception that this type of work is not very important. It is a strange rotation of different people coming and going in a person’s life who have such intimate contact with you that it’s difficult to maintain a strict, business like relationship… to be continued later

JOURNALISM

      At the beginning of this last semester I was in the middle of a news hiatus/boycott due to my disgust of the local and world news. I was finding again and again that the so called “news” seemed ever increasingly obtrusive, disturbing, and left me with a general bad feeling about myself and the world in which I live. I realized that in order to supplement and digest a journalism course I needed to open the doors once again to this particular type of media. This time, due to the class, I made every effort to take an analytic view of the journalism that was coming into my life – on the television, computer, newspaper, and magazines. I started looking at reporting and journalism as a tool and craft. I began wondering how practitioners learned to blend the different components to create the most effective form. This view also emphasized my often times cynical perception that the media has many hidden agendas in addition to relaying useful information. In fact, I still suspect that much of the news has a specific, although I would not dare say purposeful, blatant, or obvious strategy/plan of sensationalizing much of the daily hardships and challenges that people encounter. My perceptions also include a vague feeling of mass media attempts to generate fear. I’ve asked myself many times why would anyone want to create a more fearful public. Perhaps it is a mechanism used to generate a need for more information, as if the same people who make you fearful can in some way, at some time, provide information that will appease the fear, or give some clues to its resolution. The only other alternatives I can divine are that creating a fearful audience can somehow make people feel closer, as in having a common enemy, or the simple approach; fearful people are easier to control.

Religion has performed this skillful technique most proficiently for thousands of years, why not the evening news. Another form that I see in the media is the “justice” stories. These stories illustrate that every once in awhile poetic justice, or the God finger of karma, draws a line in the sand as if to say enough! I think these stories help the fearful people believe that sooner or later the bad guy’s gonna pay. It also creates the illusion that the good guys are in control and are looking out for you--the old “we’ll take care of everything you just mind your own business keep your head down and pay your taxes.” As suspicious or paranoid as this may sound, I’ve still been able to separate my emotions from the information delivery systems for the most part. I respect and appreciate the artful craft, techniques, timing, format, word choice, visual impact, audio changes, and the professional, and sometimes not so professional, presentation. With that aside I can say that my introduction to journalism course has afforded me an opportunity to look at the nuts and bolts of a well-oiled, working machine. I can appreciate all the work that goes into each and every story I hear on the radio, read in the paper/on the computer, or watch on the television. I’ll admit that some stubborn part of me still insists on hanging on to my opinion/perception that the teams of professionals working to keep the media machine running smoothly are true magical, mystical masters of shellacking and polishing stories in such a way that creates an incredible patina which viewers seem to find irresistible. This appears to be one of the most essential ingredients in reaching and capturing the desired audience.

I admire all the research that has to be done in order to piece together a really good story or article. After taking the class, I now think of who wrote the copy that the news anchor is reading from the prompter. Now when I read an article on the computer I will look for at least one other similar story and compare the facts. After I see the evening weather report on one channel, I flip to another station to compare their weather report, and then I split the difference between the two, and consequently believe less than half of what they say.  : ) I want to be idealistic, hopeful, innocent, trusting, sweet, and kind instead of suspicious, bitter, resentful, mean, and nasty. Several months ago I watched Ann Curry of the Today show interview His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and his reaction to her question of why he doesn’t follow the news more carefully most eloquently sums up my general opinion. He said “I find it neither helpful nor accurate.”  My inclination is to afford everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t stand to feel as if I am being handled, manipulated, or coerced into something. Any indication that someone is running a game of trickery raises my cynical flag and puts the breaks on my ability to feel as if I am a willing participant; it challenges my concept of precious free will and I will never go gently into that good night. Thank You Dylan Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Danny and Marlo Thomas!

            Alix *

    Everything is consciousness,

    everything fits together

    its all self organizing

    evolution unfolds within itself

    freedom is the ultimate goal



OWL




                  

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

Owls know when to move silently and when to be still, which makes them the keepers of secrets. These solitary birds don't feel the need to proclaim their presence to anyone until the timing is right. Owl comes to us when we need to open our eyes, and study the situation at hand. If we watch and listen with our inner selves we can figure out what is happening behind the scenes.  Owl sees and knows the truth. The foundation of its essence is that Owl can navigate through the darkest night and bring back nourishment for itself and others If you have lost your way, owl essence will guide you back to your path and     wisdom.

 

10 steps to Wholeness



Nourish your light body, turn entropy into evolution,
commit yourself to deeper awareness, be generous of spirit,
focus on relationships instead of consumption, relate to your body consciously,
embrace every day as a new world, let the timeless be in charge of time,
feel the world instead of trying to understand it, seek after your own mystery
 - Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul - Deepak Chopra



Tree of Flame - original water color Alix Cain

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush:
and he looked, and, behold,
the bush burned with fire,
and the bush was not consumed.

From the Blustery Day *

The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down
In rushing, rising riv'lets,
'til the river crept out of its bed
And crept right into Piglet's!
Poor Piglet, he was frightened,
With quite a rightful fright.
And so, in desperation
A message he did write.
He placed it in a bottle
And it floated out of sight.

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down
So Piglet started bailing.
He was unaware, atop his chair,
While bailing he was sailing!

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down
And the flood rose up, up, upper.
Pooh, too, was caught and so he thought,
"I must rescue my supper!"
Ten honey pots he rescued,
Enough to see him through,
But as he sopped up his supper,
The river sopped up Pooh!
And the water twirled and tossed him
In a honey pot canoe!

"Kindness is the light

that dissolves all walls

 between souls, families, and nations."
  -  Paramahansa Yogananda  -

Dear Voice

Your phrasing is very romantic,

Your vibrato is very luscious;

Your andante is tempered with whimsy

 and is taught with smiles and just a waiver of emotional turmoil,

Your pitch is right on,

Your glissando is like easing into an herbal bath surrounded by candle light, 

I bet you could sing harmonies that would make angels envy,

I like that very much and for what it's worth, I like You too !

~ The Veneration of Wonder ~

Beyond the pavilion

Below the antediluvian sky

There is a flourishing beauty

That thrives like a mystical moment

Wrapped in the fabric of a fable

With the expansion of presence

An abundant splendor

Awaits

something true and sublime *

Thoreau claims we’re not completely immersed in reality and to get there, to our own personal reality, we need to figure out our purpose. He writes, “In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here…And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us…whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us.” Much like the eastern philosophy of Buddhism which values the present moment as a way towards deeper understanding, Thoreau says that truths are not only found in eternity, but in the “now and here.” It is our duty to recognize meaning in each moment, if we are to come to a better understanding of our self and the “track” that “is laid for us.” Henry David Thoreau

57 Years Ago...

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

CHAIR

It’s not just money – a pile we could use

 Your ability to disguise yourself like everyone else, you lose

To hide among the folks with nothing in their head

Standing, kicking tires, repeating something someone else said

Young minds see so clearly yet they judge so harshly

All they have seen are objects of pity

No matter if he’s clever generous or witty

Billy had a chair – he’s dying soon

Maria had a chair- She died on a Friday at noon

Pity the people you see in the chair

The message implied is incredibly clear

He is kind and consistent, he is a crippled loser

It’s annoying to wait on a disabled Hoosier

It embarrasses us, because people are looking

We don’t want them to think that he is our dad

Does he feel like the rest of us, does he ever get mad

Mom can’t you find someone better somewhere

Even your friends say

You’ve got your hands full there

Missionary is out of the question

Maybe someone with a grown up profession

Lips don’t line up right for a kiss

Why can’t you just that,

Why don’t you just this?

Act as if you don’t notice, does he even care

How can he smile, always stuck in that chair

Where is his shame, what’s he doing out there

Rolling and laughing with all that long hair

A drawing of Carrie...
It amazes me how her beauty unfolds more each passing day
the challenge of awareness is now an active role,
this causes great happiness and endows us both with
a new, vibrant, creative energy. Awareness is like Magic !
Because once you peel away the layers of perceptions, attachments,
and just plain old too much thinking, you find that there is Abundance for everyone.

What wheelchair? Valentine date turned rural

Last night Saturday February 12, 2011

Carrie and I made for the Hiton Garden stay,
I had reservations for a wonderful romantic get away
a special Valentine package with champagne strawberries and chocolate etc.
long story short ~
My 1988 Blue Ford Econoline van Einstein broke down just outside of the hotel
I couldn't even get all the way out of the van! The
platform stuck between the van and the east lane of Pennsylvania Street
between Ohio and Market Street
cars zooming by
no options- little hope -what could we do?  - 911? National Guard? superman? who can you call?
Ghost busters? No, I dare say NO
we did manage to get the lift back up
and the doors secured with me inside
had to call and cancel the reservations 50 feet from the entrance !
No penalty thank GOD after I explained my
position to the manager, Megan,lol
She said they could bring us out some water if we wanted
and Carrie could come in and use the bathroom and get warm if need be..
I called a flat bed tow truck from home,
Carrie and I were transported on the flat bed sitting in Einstein
all the way back home.
Dad charged the battery enough so I could use the lift
and get out- we didn't quite freeze completely
we did manage to salvage some of the evening -

 Carrie went and got us some food from Culvers
and we camped out in my room, much like we always do during these months of the year
got to relate to each other and watch some TV.

NOTE: Funniest thing of the evening
while riding in Einstein on the tow truck Carrie and I saw some tea party protesters
and she wanted to give them the finger,
I laughed till I cried LOL
I said Imagine how you'd feel if your concern was so off base as to encourage
people riding in a broken down 21 year old handicap van that was being hauled on a flatbed
truck from the Charlottesville junk yard so enraged and disgusted at your cause
to be prompted to gesture so, as they were rolling by in style HA!
You had to be there I guess...
Still, we continue with our mingling as if there is little choice
who else could do it I ask ya? Fate Destiny  Karma Whatever~
it takes a lot of attitude, humor, and love!
Alix
God Bless the people of Charlottesville junk yard Steve and Cooter Payne be thy name * 

Q & A: WHAT WHEELCHAIR? First dates

Our first date was on Alix's birthday~HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY ALIX!!! <3~~~ eight years ago....It was the best first date ever! What Wheelchair?  I was floating on the elation of new love....  : )  I didn't see it. Even when it took forever moving a booth seat so we could have a cozy corner spot. Alix was not self-conscious one bit as we waited forever while the elderly restaurant owner huffed and puffed trying to wrestle the seat out of the way....I was probably trying to touch his hair or something--lol--- and figured if he didn't mind, neither did I.....We got seated and he flirted, held my hands, made me scream with laughter....Tell us your restaurant experiences with wheelchairs, love, first dates--all subjects very near and dear to us. : ) <3
Carrie
P.S.--On our first trip to Camp Chesterfield, a cat jumped into our laps! (I was riding on Alix's lap.)

Flower Power

First poppy of spring exploding like orange chiffon

the other flowers know it was the first to show its face

and now they can, in their time, show theirs

beauty surrounds us if we simply look

at all the miracles that abound

blessed

Tea

Tea

Hand-picked

Air - dried

Steeped in cold mountain water

Tender gentleness

Cleansing the fire

Invigorating with freshness

Green or Oolong

I taste the wind

In your leaves

A house

A party

Iced

Butter from Tibet

Alix Cain

The Finish Line

You were so small

Hand wrapped around my index finger

My joy exploded like an over filled balloon

When your first steps came

As the years have come and gone

Like weather on the swing

I have watched you my son

Drawing closer to the finish line

In that town with no court house 

My joy explodes within me

And my mind rises up like

a song

You move

A prince of the air

Your feet your own

A stride like an Aztec

From my wheel chair

I love to watch you

RUN!

Q & A: What is MS, anyway? NOT MS--MD

--common mistake, tho'.  People get this mixed up a lot. This answer is from Carrie--we will both answer sometimes. We think it is valuable for you to get both viewpoints--from someone with Muscular Dystrophy, and from the person living with a person who has it.
MS is Multiple Sclerosis. It has to do with the myelin sheath that covers the nerves. You can go into remission with it. Muscular Dystrophy has many different forms. You do not go into remission. However, you know what you are getting. With MS you could wake up with blurry vision. MD does not do that. At least not the type Alix has. It has been very slow progressing. In eight years his physical condition has not changed much; we are very thankfukl for that! BUT WE HAVE MOTHER's Day shopping to do  : )..... just ask us questions--we love answering!  : ) Carrie

Carrie wave

Does this cold bother your leg like it does mine

“Does This Cold Bother Your Leg Like It Does Mine?”

Introducing  “What Wheelchair?” – a section with articles and Q  &   A pertaining to disability awareness, particularly in the area of Dating/Relationships/Long-term Relationships and Marriage .

“Does This Cold Bother Your Legs Like It Does Mine?”

Those were the very first words Alix ever said to me, eight years ago. I turned around and said, in a slightly snotty tone to this man I never saw before who knew something personal about me, “No, it doesn’t, and who told you about my leg?”

“Oh, I’m sorry!,” said the most beautiful, long haired, sparkling, charismatic man I’d ever seen. He had a sheepish grin quickly followed by a dazzling smile, complete with a silver pirate tooth, no less!

I explained how my artificial hip never bothered me in cold weather (I actually forget most of the time that I have it). I asked Alix how he knew about it, and he said something just told him to ask me.  That initial subject was quickly forgotten in the euphoria of finally coming face to face with your Soulmate for the first time.

We talked excitedly in the cold and crowd of our children’s soccer match. “Are you Native American,?” I asked, watching the brisk breeze lift strands of his long, dark hair. Anyone who knows me knows I love long hair on men and women and I always have, but where we live, it is pretty rare.

“Yes, Bird Clan Eastern Cherokee People,” he replied, still with that dazzling smile and looking at me as if he were a child finally getting everything  he wanted for Christmas. I would find out later this was exactly what he felt.  We had both recently prayed for this moment, but that’s another story. J

After several minutes of animated conversation with words while our souls said “What took you so long?, “  I asked casually, “What happened to you, were you in a car wreck?” I thought Alix was in the wheelchair due to paralysis.

“Muscular dystrophy,” he said casually, never losing his smile and continuing with other subjects.

OK: I want to emphasize TWO things about the beginning of our story.

1.       WHAT WHEELCHAIR?  I didn’t care at all about Alix’s wheelchair, or react to Alix in ways that related to the wheelchair. His personality is so gigantic it’s pretty much all you can handle at first anyway. J  And mostly people are polite even if they are freaked out by it. But Alix has told me that I don’t see a person’s disability; I see the person. I relate to the person in the head, the emotions, the intelligence. It’s just the way I am, as are many others. 

What we want to do with this section of the blog is answer questions that can get you to that point if it would help,  or tell stories that would help, or even just make you feel like you aren’t the only person living life CREATIVELY, or with someone who does. And that is a whole other topic for articles—Creativity and Inventions!

2.       I very casually asked Alix why he was in a wheelchair, and he very casually answered. Exchanging this information easily was due to our personalities—we are fascinated with people and very direct in our communications and interactions with them. I would advise everyone to be direct when asking a person about his or her disability. It’s a logical question, unless they happen to be thinking about their disability and you are a mind reader! Feeling funny abot asking makes it a taboo to have a disability, and it’s not.  In the “old days” it was not polite to ask a lot of what were thought to be personal questions, but in the old days people with disabilities were sent away and shut away, too. Just be polite, as I hope you would be at anytime, with any question. Over the years, Alix has had some DOOZIES!, to which he has always responded kindly, casually, and informatively.  Once we were having dinner in a restaurant and a man actually yelled from several tables away, “Hey!  What put you in that wheelchair?” I almost choked on my spaghetti, but Alix politely answered the man without batting an eye. The man went on to talk about his wife who had died, and all about his days as a bodyguard for famous people years and years ago. It was a small restaurant that the man probably frequented alone often, and he was probably lonely. There weren’t many people there at the time and he probably felt like he was at home. He was an older man, and sometimes as we get older we don’t mince words. I am actually liking that part of growing older…. J Last year at a pow wow Alix and I were in line at a food vendor, and a sweet voice of about eleven said behind me, “Miss, may I ask why he is in a wheelchair?” I answered with a smile, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Children are always fascinated with the power chair, but I have to say, one of the oddest reactions came recently from a dog! Alix and I were walking down a busy sidewalk (see—I still forget after all this time—don’t correct yourself when it happens). We approached two women, one of whom was walking a dog. The poor dog took one look at Alix rolling along and knew something was very different with that picture! He about choked himself backing away and getting tangled around a fire hydrant!  Talk about a smart dog! Disabilities are scary to some people, and dogs too.

So remember: react and relate to the person, not the disability. And if you have questions, ask.

I had two questions for Alix after our first meeting. I had never met anyone with muscular dystrophy before. I don’t think I had ever met anyone in a wheelchair before. My first question was whether it would affect his lifespan. I’ll let you guess what the second one was. LOL

---Carrie Torres is Alix’s partner of eight years.   

Heart in Snow

Heart in the Snow

We found you at the Festival

Your symbol is eternal

Love like this

Old Beech remains

 The Beech tree is noble and charming.The mighty beech is a Druid tree...Like an old friend from a novel the gentle beech tree still remains...In Celtic Astrology the Beech is important and can tell you a lot about your personality and proclivities.
This is my first colored pencil drawing of a tree by itself : )

Katasha water color

May 3rd

May 3 is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 242 days remaining until the end of the year.

Letter to a Professor

Letter to a Professor

© Alix Cain, 2011

Oy Vey! What a time I’ve had dragging myself through the murky mire of illness these last few weeks. Two colds, something like the flu or food poisoning  accompanied by constipation, internal bleeding, weakness, then diarrhea, migraines, more weakness, no appetite, blurred vision, fever, and all the while pain, pain, pain, crippling, mind altering pain in nearly every part of my body!  My God, I hope it is over. There has been a constant companion of a seemingly never ending stream of terrible, nasty news to accompany me during this difficult time.  Japan, politics, murder, mayhem, child abandonment, abuse, weather, economy, stupid Charlie Sheen, and the list goes on and on and on. I am looking forward to getting back to work. Sometimes it feels like I am a pioneer struggling with certain aspects of this muscular dystrophy. The flu is hard enough for an able bodied person. I know we have the Father above who loves and cares for us, and in that light, I do realize and understand that when my vertical relationship with divinity is in its healthy, proper place – all my horizontal relationships suddenly become much easier to manage, even the one with myself. : ) I believe that when Saint Paul wrote about the storms in a person’s spiritual life – he wasn’t talking about adversity or the difficulties we experience along the way, THE STORMS he was talking about are the doubts and fears that come.

When I give in to those doubts and fears and catch myself thinking that things should somehow be different than the way they are simply because I want them to be, or have some idealistic yet immature expectation for smooth sailing, then I realize I am in the wrong place, the wrong mindset that is neither helpful nor accurate. Gratitude is the place most fertile, and if I can just keep from suffering over my suffering, while reminding myself of all the many things I have to be thankful for while extending an open loving, compassionate heart to myself and others, I think I can stay on the good road a while longer… Perhaps all this sounds like self-indulgent, random lunacy… not too cryptic I hope… My biggest question these last couple weeks has not been when can I get my assignments done? How many more years of school work before I can earn a paycheck? Will my hands even function then? What am I doing? Instead questions like – is this really my body? How can I cope with this ever increasing burden? What the HELL is pain for? How many calories does it take to live in a chair and NOT develop a snowman waistline?

What will become of me? How can I make it out of this fog and see the sun again?

SO Patti, you see- maybe I have gone round the bend a bit… but now I hope I can pull it together and crank out some brilliant assignments. Thank You,

Alix Cain

Alix Cain is a writer, artist, and musician living in Eastern Indiana. He is also an Ordained Minister and Reiki Master. He and his partner Carrie and their children are living in awareness, always endeavoring to teach by example with loving kindness ever being their guiding light.