Why AWFUL Things Happen To GOOD People..!

~~  Gandalf    (THE LORD OF THE RINGS)

~~ Alfred    (BATMAN BEGINS)

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Yesterday morning, I was incredibly inspired by a speech given by Joel Osteen. I must profess not watching his show religiously. I was switching channels this day, the moment I turned to his program, he was espousing the importance of looking for the blessings that come with most of our daily burdens.  And of course being The New Age Nerd that I AM, I was hooked! So much of what he was saying resonated at a deeply profound level for me.  Much of it because how it correlated very closely with the core vibration of this site, that being The Superhero's Journey.  And the fact that no thing that comes into your experience is a coincidence; be it illness, loss, betrayal, nor the many wonderful and amazing things that we co-create each and everyday. It is all a part of the divine's way of supporting us on our true path. It does not mean these experiences and emotions are easy. In fact, some of them can feel downright excrutiating and cause us to question what the hell is going on in our lives. Some of us get hit so hard, and in so many ways (often all at once), we may start to lose our faith. That is why his message was such a powerful infusion of remembrance for me and I am sure many others. 

Mr. Osteen told some powerful and humorous stories about his own life. And the manner in which some quite challenging personal events forced him to face his biggest fears. Many of them becoming the most magnificent blessings he has yet to experience. For instance, his father was a pastor who actually started the church with his family. Joel was much younger then and was quite introverted and shy. He much preferred to stay behind the scenes and help his family by serving the church away from the pulpit's spotlight. Until his father suddenly passed away. And in the middle of his heavy grief, he had a huge decision to ponder. In order for the church to continue, he knew he would have to take the lead and become the church's head pastor. Something that scared the hell out of him. But he decided to put his entire faith in SPIRIT. And so the following Sunday, he gathered (given and supported by SPIRIT) the courage and strength to grab the microphone for the very first time! He got on the pulpit to carry forth the work his father had started so many years before.  And as we all now know, Joel is one of the most beloved spiritual teachers on this planet!  He has inspired millions of people to live the 'Greatest Version of the Grandest Vision' ever held of themselves.  Now that is a transcendent example of turning a burden into a blessing.  Not only for himself, but for the world!

It also brought to mind a powerful story from the life of Napoleon Hill, who is one of the founding fathers of modern day self actualization practices and paradigms.  Of all the magnificent stories he has shared through his many books, none is near as powerful as the story of his second son from his seminal tomb ‘Think And Grow Rich.’  You see, Napoleon Blair Hill was born without any physical signs of ears. From birth, all his doctors proclaimed that due to his physical deformities, he would live a life being both deaf and mute. A devastating declaration for any parent! However, Napoleon Hill was a true 'Bringer of the Light.' He made a vow that very day those doctors told them their opinion, that his son would indeed learn to hear and speak!  He has said his steely determination came from a famous quote attributed to transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, who profoundly stated, “The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey.  There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right words.”

To help demonstrate the power of DESIRE, in the second chapter of his book, he outlined his plan to assist his son toward his goal:

Napoleon's plan included:

• renewing his own daily pledge for Blair's wholeness;
• imparting his burning desire to Blair;
• not teaching sign language to Blair;
• mainstreaming Blair's education instead of sending him to a school for the deaf;
• creating bedtime stories for Blair with themes "designed to develop in him self-reliance, imagination, and a keen desire to hear and to be normal" as well as to establish the belief that"his affliction was not a liability, but an asset of great value"

Through the use of several techniques, Napoleon started gaining some progress, as Blair slowly began to hear vibrations and even music if played loud enough.  Hill was able to incorporate his own famous declaration that “every adversity brings with it the equal seed of opportunity,” through the example of teaching his own son how to hear.  

Blair not only made it through a basic education, but later excelled at the University of West Virginia. After graduation, he reluctantly traveled to New York to meet with a company who had heard about his story. They had been developing a hearing aid device inspired by Blair's own deep desire to help himself and others with auditory disabilities. But so many former attempts of introducing such devices into this market had never found their mark.  But little did he know his own Superhero's Journey was beginning anew!

This new device actually worked tremendously and allowed Blair to hear clearly for the first time in his life. So excited and now doggedly determined to use his father's philosophy of  turning burdens into blessings, he asked the company that designed the device if he could work on its marketing plan. His goal was to “render useful service.... to bring hope and practical relief to thousands of deafened people who, without his help, would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.”

Blair spent a great portion of the remaining of his life on his mission. And did indeed help millions of hearing impaired individuals all around the world to live new lives through the use of this magical hearing aide device! 

Blair Hill's faith, coupled with the unshakable belief and LOVE of his father, turned misfortunate into a MIRACLE! One that has magically improved the lives of millions of people. It is such an inspirational testament to the power God places within our pain. For while our suffering may at times appear to be arbitrary, this story proves that is far from the truth. Pain is simply a part of the 'HEAVENLY HERO MAKING MACHINE' that our Grand Creator has put into place to forge miracles for us and through us. NEVER to us! Please always remember that distinction. 

And the next time you feel less than, unlovable, unworthy, or simply are lost in your own darkness, remember that you are a Superhero. Just being here is proof positive of that. Because not everyone who was asked to come here said "YES." In fact, the majority said "NO." 
Not because any of them are less than in their own making, but because this earthly experience is very dense for the soul. And at times can be quite painful. Some would even say BRUTAL! Growth and expansion at this speed often requires strokes of pain as the catalyst for the birthing process of miracles to occur within this realm.  So please be super proud of the fact that when confronted with the choice to make a lasting difference in a world that is in desperate need of superheroes, you did not back down from the challenge! And that in itself makes you a 'Legend in Training!'

Through the moon lit night....
A single Path is now shown...
Dare I step onto its glowful glare...
For the destination is unknown...

I ask Spirit for Guidance and Strength...
As I take my first move into the Night...
Heavy are the thoughts of my mind...
An internal struggle to hide my Fright...

It is then that I Re-member...
That when our Journey is at its end....
We all forge a path and must go alone....
To those before me, much Love do I send.....

Night swept Fog now blinds my way....
A silent whisper like none before....
Asks for my utter Belief and Trust...
As I traverse this foreign shore..

My sight still betrays me...
Tho I surrender to this special voice...
And brave this dreamlike vision...
For I've learned the power of choice ...

We have many gifts to light our darkness..
Yet still so many lose their will...
Giving way to all their lifelong pain...
Shouting to heaven a powerful shrill....

Perhaps this night's Journey....
Will show me that our pain is power...
Perhaps forgotten along the way...
Inspiring others with this night's swept shower...

Is this the Purpose for my dreamlike state...
To assist in my Re-membering of why I came...
A Steward of conscious spiritual Light...
Teaching others that our Path we can reframe....

As I start the process of Knowingness...
The path ahead begins to clear....
My Hero's Journey illuminates this path...
And leaves me No Thing to Fear.....

Written by Jeffrey Louis Martinez

May these words offer you solace in the darkest of your nights. So you may remember that all of your burdens are nothing less than blessings in disguise!

BE SUPER HEROIC!
LOVE - SERVE -INSPIRE

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Learn This LESSON. LOVE is a VERB, not A NOUN......!

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I think we can all agree that there is a huge paradigm shift back towards LOVE that must take place in our society and within our collective consciousness. But do we truly understand what that means?  The word LOVE itself has lost much of its meaning and in turn its potency for lasting change. Remember this quote from the film 'GHOST' starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze.  

                                                                                  

Swayze's character refused to repeat the words “I love you” back to Demi Moore when she uttered the sentiment to him.  He didn't want the word to lose its power and meaning by using it incessantly.  So instead, he would simply return the gesture by saying “DITTO.”

I bring this up because I sense a very similar vibration surrounding the word in our current culture.  While it is heartwarming to see hundreds of people at the peaceful protests and memorial services for all the recent shooting victims holding signs of ‘LOVE NOT HATE’ and other various messages using this expression, I think it is critical for us to remember what LOVE truly means and stands for.  After all, it is the most POWERFUL vibration in the Universe and is the cause of most miracles in our experience.  

I believe one issue is that our culture is so mesmerized by the notion of ‘being in LOVE’, that we confuse this feeling and its proper usage for the highest good of all concerned. You see, LOVE is a VERB, and not a NOUN. It is a choice and it is an action. And before you claim me a cynic, I'll have you know, I am a hopeless romantic. Profoundly so in fact. I have a list of numbers of young ladies you can call for verification! I will even admit to having been ‘crazy in LOVE' on more than one occasion. The KING of grand romanic gestures! Oh the stories I could tell! And my therapist will be back me up to any naysayers.  😎

Author Stephen Covey sites an encounter with a client in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” The client asks him what he should do about his failing marriage. He says that he’s tried everything and that there’s no love left between him and his wife. The client asked Covey what he should do about his wife and kids. “Have you tried loving her?” asks Covey. “I’ve told you, there’s no love anymore,” says the client. Covey reiterates, “But have you tried loving her?”  The client begins to get mad before Covey explains. “Love is a verb, it is an action. You must do things for her, listen to her, be there for her. It’s not about what happens in return but what you do to love her.”

He tells his client that during the next three months, he is to LOVE his wife with the fervent ACTIONS and gestures like when he first fell ‘in LOVE’ with her.  And then he makes his client a deal.  If after three months of dedicated, consistent loving action towards her, he still wants a divorce, he will coach him through it! And you know what, the client returned exactly three months later with a renewed sense of passion for his relationship.  And thoughts of any separation faded back into the ether from which they came!  

Now obviously there are some relationships that have reached the end of their service toward both parties, and NO amount of actionable loving gestures will change that.  And that is OK.  As the saying goes, some people come into our life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.  There is no shame in making a decision on what is best for the highest good of all concerned!

But for the point of this post, I would like to help us all remember that the LOVE our world requires right NOW is in terms of its true meaning: ACTION!   And one of the most basic reframing tools of our actions is a fairly basic one.  I constantly tell my clients that they can choose to be RIGHT, or they can choose to be LOVING in any relationship, argument, disagreement, or confrontation.  BUT, they cannot choose to be both.  So I urge them to choose LOVE. And it is my wish that from this point forward, so do you!  

While holding signs and standing in protest is a magnificent gesture in conviction toward the change we seek to experience, one that changes our vibration from hate and fear to love, it takes more than that to truly cause a rift in our behavioral patterns back toward our true essence of pure awakened consciousness.  For you who are still racking your noggins on what I mean, here is a small list of actionable steps seeped in LOVE that any of us can partake in:

1.  Go visit a senior assisted living home and spend time with the residents.  You will be AMAZED at the sharing of LOVE you will be engaged with!

2. Volunteer at a food kitchen for the needy. One out of four people in the US go hungry EVERY day.  What would it feel like to contribute toward that atrocity?!

3.  Go check in on your elderly or disabled neighbors.  Even if it is just to sit with them so they know someone cares.  Last year, my mother and I assisted a neighbor who had diabetes, no left arm, and MS. And no family to care for her. Simply bringing her a morning coffee often brought tears to her eyes before she made her transition back to SPIRIT!

4. Stop and actually acknowledge the next homeless person you encounter.  You don't always need to offer them money.  Simply looking them in the eye and letting them know you see them and that they matter can make the biggest difference to these precious SOULS. 

5.  Choose one person a day to reach out to with a quick email or even better a PHONE CALL to tell them how much they mean to you and how wonderful and valuable you think they are to you.

6.  Visit a dog shelter and sign up to be a dog walker for the poor pups who are stuck in cages all day.  After all, DOG spelled backwards is GOD!

7.  Find a local church or community Good Will center and inquire to see if they need volunteers to help in any fashion.  Free help to institutions low on funds is always a Heavenly sent gift!

8.  Sign up to be a mentor for a young boy or girl who is in the foster system.   Teach them through your actions that the world validates their worth and assist them on a path toward a purpose that will give them HOPE and Faith on their Superhero's Journey.

I'm sure if you thought about it, you could come up with your own list of things that perfectly fit the sensibilities that form a passionate form of service.  And I hope that starting today, you do just that.  I know we are all busy, and that time is a precious commodity.  But if your intentions are pure, the Universe will create time where there was previously only chaos. As we New Age Nerds are aware, time is just an illusion. But the need for our collective consciousness to create long lasting change is NOT!

As Marianne Williamson says, “A miracle is a shift from fear to LOVE.”  And the fastest and most indelible way to create a Miracle is through the action of LOVE!!!

BE SUPER HEROIC!

LOVE-LAUGH-SERVE-INSPIRE

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

STOP Letting Your EXPECTATIONS Destroy Your HAPPINESS..!

 

My family laid my father to rest over four years ago after his VALIANT fight with cancer.  One of the greatest decisions I ever made was taking time off from my career to assist in his daily care regimen.  What started out as a tumor in his nasal cavity, eventually found its way to his brain.  You may hear stories about the effects of this disease, but until you witness a loved one battle it on a daily basis, you simply cannot fathom the all encompassing and oppressive wrath of nature it brings to everyone involved in its wake.  NASTY...EVIL... SOUL CRUSHING stuff! 

And as a caretaker, each and every day becomes an opportunity to learn the importance of managing your expectations.  Learning to orchestrate and accept what may come in the kaleidoscope of  daily chaos is truly the determining factor in withstanding the momentous task at hand.  To further cement this point, let's just say projectile vomiting, daily trips to emergency rooms, and fainting spells that block entrances to popular establishments became commonplace.  Feel me?!

In fact, there is one particular story during this Journey that still stands as the most MEMORABLE, not to mention most powerful example of the importance of managing our daily expectations and accepting life as it occurs! 

My dad needed to have the entire right side of his face surgically removed in order to access the lemon sized tumor that had invaded his nasal cavity.  Bone was taken from his left leg to rebuild his cheek to create relative semblance of his face's pre-surgery form.  However, in the process, a new throat path was implemented for breathing and eating purposes.  As you can imagine, at his mature age, it took months of daily physical therapy for him to ‘re-learn’ how to swallow properly.  Doing so incorrectly would cause remnants to enter his lungs and not his stomach.  Serious stuff!  

His medical team put him on a grueling daily schedule that included just about anything and everything you could think a mouth and jaw could withstand, sans my dad's favorite passion of eating.  I mean nothing, nada, zilch in the food department for over three months.  Of course he was being fed through his IV lines, but let's be truthful, that does NOT a full belly make!  So I made him a promise.  I told him then the moment his doctors cleared him to finally delve back into the world of culinary delight, I would personally bring him whatever his blessed heart desired!

Several weeks later, I received a call from the hospital one early morning.  It was my Pop, and from the ebullient sound of his voice, I just knew he had been cleared for full swallowing!!   What I hadn't prepared myself for was the exhaustive list of various tasty treats he had his sights set on gobbling down.  In fact, here is the full list:  Pancakes from the local diner, a Wendy's hamburger and fries, a chocolate shake,  a whipped frap AND a regular coffee from Starbucks, jello, and “any kind of pie you can get your paws on Jeff”.  OK!  A promise is a promise.......

After the nearly two hour trek to actually procure all the items on his wish list, I finally made my way to hospital and I now know what Santa Claus must feel like.  My father's eyes lit up like it was his first Christmas as I slowly removed one piece of food after another from the giant bag I had brought.  It took two tables to set up the entire spread, and once I was finished, I looked him straight in the eye.  

“Are you sure you are ready for all this, Pop,” I inquired.  He was much too busy scouring the buffet tables before him to give me eye contact back.  But he nodded his head in a resounding YES fashion!

And just then, the Crohn's disease that sometimes causes me urgent need for a ‘bathroom break’ hit.  And HARD!  I decided to throw proverbial caution to the windpipe, and ran straight for the toilet.  Until......relief!!  But I soon heard a most disconcerting sound.  I am known to make some interesting bathroom music, but this was....different.  Nervously, I kicked open the bathroom door, to see my father horribly choking in his chair!   His face was already turning blue!!   I immediately flung off the sweatpants and underwear that were still down around my ankles and ran back into his room, now NAKED from the waist down. Yeah, I'm not kidding!!

There was a huge bed next to the chair where he had been eating, so I jumped up on it and grabbed my dad by his waist to start giving him the heimlich maneuver.  In between each shrug, I yelled for help toward the nurse's office with the room number where this..ummm...incident was occurring!  

One after another, nurses and doctors filled the room (nine in all), and jaws dropped each time at what they were witnessing.  Here was a HALF NAKED Mexican on a bed, shaking the hell out of a 65 year old man, bouncing up and down like a tryout for Cirque de Soleil!  Until.....POOOOOFFFF!!  The piece of food lodged in my dad's throat shot out across the room literally sticking to the wall several feet away.  I slowly, and gently put him down to rest in the bed.  The now somewhat emotionally scarred medical professionals in witness to this EVENT, rushed to my father's side as I slowly backed away.

Thank GOD, he was just fine! It was ME who then needed help.  The emotional charge of what had just happened starting to wear off, I remembered, I was still buck naked in a room full of strangers.  Aye Dios Mio!

Thankfully, the entire room started applauding my efforts, as I jaunted back to the bathroom where my pride still resided.  Now YOU tell ME!  Could even my wildest expectations ever have conjured or even prepared me for the experiences that day brought? No way, Jose!  And guess what, although none of them nearly as bizarre as that day's, the journey our entire family fought for over a year, trying to battle this cursed disease, brought dozens of unexpected delays, trauma, and scares.  We were initially told my dad's surgery and recovery process would be six weeks.  He didn't even wake up from surgery for almost two months.  Looking back, I believe our biggest saving grace was learning to accept the ISNESS of our daily battles.  Through the lens of rear view perspective, the culmination of these experiences, albeit painful, costly and challenging, were also incredibly powerful lessons in how much our expectations play a role in determining how we deal with life. Had we each conjured our own personal expectations for this year long roller coaster of a ride, it would have destroyed our emotional fortitude.  Expectations are no thing more than premeditated resentments!  Please DO NOT let them be the author of the majority of the pain and suffering in your life.  Instead, remember that Katherine Hepburn said, “Love has nothing to do with what you expect to get-only what you are expecting to give.”

BE SUPER HEROIC!

LOVE-SERVE-INSPIRE

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

TIPS To PLEASE Stop Being So HARD On YOURSELF...!

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One of my favorite Eddie Murphy films is ‘Coming to America.’  While Murphy displayed an uncanny ability to pull off a cacophony of various characters throughout the film, it is his iconic portrayal of a poor man's lounge singer in Randy Watson that still causes me to have fits of combustable laughter just thinking of his filmed antics.  His frustrated cover performance of Whitney Houston's ‘The Greatest Love of All’ with his band 'Sexual Chocolate' to a completely uninterested crowd remains the highlight of the film for me.  Admittedly, the satirical subtext within that scene has become more profound within my spiritual sensibilities as I have grown older and wiser since the film's initial 1987 release. Like most comedians of a GENIUS level, their art is infused with deeper meaning, and self realized constructs than mere laughs and iconic characterizations.  

In the film, Murphy plays a fictional Prince of unimaginable wealth, who seeks to find true love for WHO HE IS INSIDE; not because of his stature and position in life. And it is the Randy Watson debacle that is just one scene that underlines the theme of the film; that being one of SELF LOVE and self acceptance. The understanding that our entire worth is encapsulated by the simple fact we are all unique, gorgeous, brilliant emanations of Spirit. There is not one thing we have to do to prove that fact, other than simply being ourselves.  And then share our own distinct form of the genius within (and is our constant co-pilot) with the world. Always and in ALWAYS!  

And yet, as simple as all this sounds, most of us have turned against ourselves and become a world of  destructive  SELF TOUGH LOVE as well as our own worst enemy. How is it that we have become so damn hard on ourselves? Although we were born into a realm of unimaginable creative abundance, opportunity, and unlimited possibility, most of us live our lives as though we are part of "The Hunger Games."  Our emotional moments are filled with thoughts of guilt, shame, regret, lack, cracked confidence and fear. We spend much more time in self judgement that self progression. Left unchecked, this form of energy can eventually lead to depression, anxiety, and isolation of every sort. And the cumulative effect of such thinking is causing us to play much smaller than we were ever meant to. And the caustic byproduct is neglecting our individual Superhero's Journey to cling to some illusionary form of stability, rather than exploding into the iconoclastic luminaries we came here to BE!

There are many reasons for this paradigm shift in our sense of the SELF we choose to be rather than the SELF we truly are at our core.  Influences from friends, family, the media, and social constructs that are now built around constant competition amongst ourselves.  That's why a portion of The New Age Nerd's manifesto states we........ 

“commit daily to become ‘The Greatest Version of The Grandest Vision’ ever held of ourselves.  In this way, we worry not about being better than others, but rather BEING better than we used to be.”

Like many writers, coaches, healers, and performers, I'm often susceptible to this epidemic of 'BEING TOO HARD ON MYSELF.'  Most of us on this list are incredible sensitive and compassionate. We feel deeply and passionately for others and often find it quite challenging in discriminating and compartmentalizing between others pain and our own. Our greatest strengths can also become our greatest weaknesses.  

So if you find that you could use some tweaking toward a greater sense of  ‘The Greatest Love of All’, here are some tips to guide your way back to being at peace and a deep knowingness of WHO YOU REALLY ARE.

1.  Look at everything in your life as a BLESSON.

Karen Salmansohn coined this phrase that I think is absolutely brilliant.  In her words a BLESSON is “when you are able to view painful lessons as blessings.  In other words, a BLESSON is what happens when you see the BLESSING in the painful LESSON that your challenge taught you.”

Whether something has happened, shown up, been lost, or ended, looking at the event as a BLESSON is a wonderful way of not shifting any blame on ourselves as part of the process! I LOVE it! I hope you will too!

2.  You’re On a Superhero's Journey.
Rather than espousing something new here, I thought I would use a portion from a past post that I believe perfectly encapsulates how the Hero's Journey can be one of the most powerful ways to channel our pain, challenges, and suffering into an incredible productive manner.

From the post “ A Dark KNIGHT of The Soul”  by Jeffrey Louis Martinez
“But what absolutely struck at the core of my utter BEING was his explanation of what he has termed ‘The Hero's Journey’.    And how everything that life brings us is no thing short of EXACTLY what we need in order to fulfill our purpose here on Earth.  Of course I had heard of the Hero's Journey during my previous travels.  But this time, I REALLY HEARD IT.  Truly understood its meaning with a ferocity of acceptance and purposeful enlightenment.  I wasn't a failure.  In fact, ‘just the opposite’,  I thought.  If I had gone through THIS much suffering and pain so far in my life, then my Hero's Journey must be pretty big.  I had always believed I was here to be a guide to assist others on their warriors path, but now, I KNEW IT.  Big difference!

So no matter what your current situation may be, there is HOPE.  In those moments of despair, please remember that there is a PURPOSE for everything you are going through. I PROMISE!  You are not alone.  That's what we are doing here, together.  Trying to help one another figure out why we are going through so much pain and suffering, and how we can channel it into our reason for being!”  

3.  Remember Failure is an Illusion.

Did you know that it took Thomas Edison over 2,000 times to try and get the electric lightbulb to glow.  Imagine how emotionally gut wrenching it must have been for him to invite his group of fellow inventors in to a room time and time again, only to ‘flip’ the switch that should have illuminated the bulb before them, only to experience....  NOTHING! NADA! 

However, Edison had an incredible sense of his own connection to SOURCE.  He famously told people that he NEVER actually failed at being unable to manipulate electricity.  Instead, he reframed it by stating that every single time he flipped the switch and no light appeared, he actually succeeded at proving yet another way that electricity would not work.  Has a light gone off in your noggin about how you can reframe any of your perceived present or future failures?! 

4.  Learn the difference between Being a Genius and HAVING A GENIUS.

This comes from a TED talk given by famous ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ author Elizabeth Gilbert.  And it has radically changed my handling of creative self judgement in a BIG WAY.    After Gilbert received a ginormous amount of acclaim and attention (Hello Oprah!) after the debut of her first book, she became fraught with paralyzing fear.  She has stated, “the result of which means that everywhere I go now people treat me like I'm doomed... They come up to me now all worried and they say “aren't you afraid you are never going to be able to top that?  I'm sure afraid you're going to keep writing for your whole life and you're never going to again be able to create a book for anybody in the world to care about at all, ever again?”.

She found solace from the world of Greek Myth, and the original meaning of GENIUS.  Back in that timeframe, people did  NOT believe that creativity came from human beings. People believed creativity was this DIVINE attendant Spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknown SOURCE.  The Romans were the first to label this type of spiritual muse from the ether a GENIUS.  They live in and around us, and like a modern day UBER, available 24-7 to assist us in our creative intentions.  

I call this Infinite Intelligence. Or SOURCE energy.  Spirit. The I AM. As Gilbert now understands, the knowingness that she is simply the vessel through which Spirit chooses to speak takes off a lot of the pressure.  Everything is a co-creation, and the way to ensure that you receive the assistance from the Infinite Intelligence that is accessible to us all is to have humility. And the belief that YOU ARE WORTHY to be used as a divine vessel for your own magical muse to work through!

Something I have to constantly remind myself is that life does not happen TO you. But rather 
FOR you and through you. Everything is a blessing. It is so important to be at peace with what is. And to remember that you are a BLESSED and DIVINE creation. 

There has never been anyone like you, and there NEVER will be again. We matter. We are all here for an unfathomably important purpose and being too hard on ourselves will only greatly reduce your ability and the time you have to share your LIGHT with the world!

BE SUPER HEROIC!

LOVE- LAUGH- SERVE - INSPIRE

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

The UNIVERSE Just TAGGED You...YOU'RE IT... !

 

Many moons ago, when I was still just a New Age Nerd in training, the warm Virginia summer nights became a magical filled time of memories in the making!  I was blessed enough to have a great group of friends who shared most of the same passions as me. We were adventurous, creative, and at times quite competitive.  Our complimentary skill sets made for a complete whole that was willing and waiting at all times to conjure the next great opportunity for real life fun! This was near pre-historic times mind you; way before cell phones, personal computers, and the internet.  Our form of 'Social Media' was the utter rush of excitement that accompanied actually knocking on your friends door to see if they were at home and wanted to come out to play! I dare say most kids nowadays would be hard pressed if asked where their best friends even reside.  Aye Dios Mio!  ;0)

One of our nightly summer rituals became a game of MIDNIGHT TAG! Our mid-summer skies stayed lit until way past 9 o'clock, and so around 10 PM we would agree to meet in the middle island of our cul-de-sac to begin the night's festivities!  

The game itself was our version of the standard Hide and Go Seek; only in the near pitch blackness of the toasty summer night. To start each game, one person was picked to be the TAGGER.  They would close their eyes and count to thirty.  In a hurried rush that resembled something akin to a 'chinese fire drill', all the other players scurried about in the near dark to find a hiding space! Once the TAGGER had finished his countdown, 'let the games begin!'   

The objective was fairly straightforward, albeit somewhat scary given the lack of light. The TAGGER went searching the neighborhood to try and 'pick off' any of the other players in hiding through physically touching them.  All the other players tried to get back to 'home base' safely before being tagged.  Once a player was tagged, that round was over and anyone who had made it back to home base safe and sound earned a point. And the player tagged became the new TAGGER in the next game.  At the end of the night's Battle Royale, the person with the most points won the game!  Man, to be a kid again, right?!  

On one, now unforgettable evening of frightful fun, my sister and I started running toward home base at the exact same time. I was the TAGGER and was doggedly determined to knock her out of the game! Now remember, with vision being compromised from the veil of darkness, there was no comprehension that WE WERE RUNNING STRAIGHT INTO ONE ANOTHER! Without anyway to have known to brace myself, KAPOW!  A full speed collision in which my sister's forehead blasted into my left upper eye,  leveling me down for the count before I had any idea what the HELL just happened!  For a couple of minutes, I didn't know 'who the heck' I was, much less 'where the heck' I was.  (Cue circling cartoon stars and tweety birds around my poor noggin')

When the cobwebs finally starting tearing away from my consciousness, I remember being on my back with all my friends hovering above me in utter disbelief.  'Did I win?!' was my incredulous first question.  LOL  To which my friend Frankie kept repeating, "Is it going to keep getting bigger than that?!"   Prompting my buddy Mike to continue sheepishly retorting, "I Dunno?!" Bigger than WHAT I thought!   Then, I started regaining feeling in my body and I felt a warm, deep thumping-pounding above my left eye.   Inner Monologue Please:  UH OH! Either something nasty must be happening, or by the looks of all these faces, maybe I was just abducted by aliens!  And Scene........   ;0)

By the time my friends carried me back to our townhouse, my eye had closed completely shut from the impact of the blow.  I couldn't see a lick out of its blunt forced contusions.  Looking in the mirror, all I could conjure up was the line from the movie the ELEPHANT MAN;  "I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!"    LOL

On the bright side, this not so little mishap did befall on me a 'Get Out Of School' pass for one week!  Yeah for me!  Kinda...  Sorta.. Not really! Once the wound slowly resolved itself, my vision in that left eye was never the same.  A trip to the optometrist to be fitted with a new pair of thick black eye glasses is now part of my lore/origin story and eventual transformation into a New Age Nerd! 

Fast forward to watching the 2019 Golden Globe Awards.  Near the middle of the program, the customary Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award went to the great and very deserved Jeff Bridges!  And during his exceptional acceptance speech, he began to tell a story about Being Tagged in life. I would like to share it in full:

"One of the great, great directors I was lucky enough to work for was the late great Michael Cimino.  I can remember going into his office before the first day of filming and saying, "Mike, man, I think you have made a terrible mistake. I'm not feeling this guy (his character) at all.  I feel so inadaquate. I feel bad because I'm giving you such late notice. But please fire me."  And Michael looked at me and said, "Jeff, you know that game TAG.  Well, YOU'RE IT!"  I said, 'What do you mean, I'm It?'  And he said, "You are the guy. You couldn't make a mistake if you wanted to.  The life of this character is coming through you. It's a done deal." I thought, that is a wonderful vote of confidence and a great new perspective to look at this thing. And I used that in the film and use it now in all the other movies I've gotten, as well as in my life.  I've BEEN TAGGED!  I guess we all have been TAGGED.  We're alive!  Ya know what I'm saying.  I look at my life through the filter of movies.  I find directors and fellow actors all over the place in my life and one guy, he had nothing to do with the movies, but I have taken a lot of direction from him. His name is Bucky Fuller. Bucky made this great observation about these ocean going tankers. He noticed the engineers were particularly challenged by how to turn these things. They have this big rudder that took too much energy to turn the ship.  So they came up with a brilliant idea. Lets put a litter rudder on the big rudder.  The little rudder will turn the big rudder.  The big rudder will turn the ship.  That little rudder is called a trim tab.  And Bucky made the analogy that the trim tab is an example of how the individual is connected to society and how we affect society. And I like to think of myself as a trim tab.  And all of us are trim tabs!  We may seem like we are not up to the task.  But we are, man, we are alive! We can really make a difference. We can turn this ship in the way we want to go.  TOWARDS LOVE! Creating a healthy planet for all of us.  So, I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for TAGGING me.  And I want to TAG you all!  You're all trim tabs!  TAG, YOU'RE IT!"  

Do any of you reading have what I call GODBUMPS?  I sure did and still do!  And Mr. Bridges story is so poignantly powerful.  Every single one of us is here, now because we have been TAGGED by the Universe.  We are all SUPERHEROES on a Journey with a unique, divinely devised calling that absolutely no one can fulfill but......   Y...O...U!  You are that special, that amazing, and the 'God Given Gifts' that have been bestowed upon you for this grand adventure are desperately needed by the World;  RIGHT NOW!  No more excuses.  NAP TIME IS OVER!  It's time to fully awaken into your Divinity.  

Just like my own personal story about being TAGGED, I'm not professing that the Journey will be easy.  Life isn't meant to be easy.  It's meant to be meaningful.  And transformative.  You will be asked to face your fears and undoubtedly will be gobsmacked down to the mat more than once!  Just as I was that summer night over 35 years ago.  But PLEASE do not let that stop you from answering the soulful ringtone that is trying to awaken you to your calling.  Bless that sound in every form it arrives in your experience.  Be it in the next song you hear, or the next blog (wink) or book you read.  That music is just your own Soul seeking back it's dance partner. Remember, you are not doing any of this alone.  Within each of you is a Super Heroic Higher Self!  Don't be afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone and pealing off the Illusionary Veil of a former self that no longer serves you.  As scary as I know it can be.

What if I told you that everything that has ever rested deep within your heartfelt desires is awaiting you on the other side of all your fears, self doubt, and personal pain?  Would that give you the courageous push to finally ignite your Super Heroic Higher Self and start living from that new illusionless identity?  And in addition, the byproduct of transforming into this 'Miracle Makin' Machine' was nothing less than widening the flow of LOVE, wisdom, compassion, and bliss back into the World!  All while being in loving service to all while wielding your own set of super powers.  As Mr. Bridges said, we are all 'Trim Tabs!'  And there is no more time to waste.......   

TAG, YOU'RE IT!

BE SUPER HEROIC!  

LOVE - SERVE- INSPIRE 

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez 

MODERN MYTH MESSAGES: THE HOBBIT...!

 

The Hobbit is the precursor to the Lord of the Rings saga. It tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a kind hearted, but fearful Hobbit whose dreams of grand adventures outside of his village (The Shire) have gone homeless. Now completely content in staying stagnate, his life has become a mundane routine of caring for 'the things' he has slowly collected. However, he is given the opportunity to forever change his destiny by joining a ragtag group of 13 dwarves who are intent on taking back their homeland from a giant, fire breathing dragon called Smaug! 

As is most often the case, this 'Reluctant Superhero' is at first slow to accept the challenge, scared to leave the comfort zone of a life that he thinks is keeping him safe from emotional, physical, and spiritual harm. 

In one final attempt to awaken Bilbo from his own slumber, he is met by the grand wizard Gandalf. For when the Super Hero is ready, the teacher will always appear! And Bilbo is about to discover that he is much more willing to accept his life's CALLING than he ever realized!



GANDALF: You've been sitting quietly for far too long! Tell me! When did doilies and your mother's dishes become so important to you? I remember a young Hobbit who was always running off in search of elves in the woods. And would stay out late. Come home after dark, trailing mud and twigs and fireflies. A young Hobbit who would have liked nothing better than to find out what was beyond the borders of The Shire! The world is not in your books and maps. (pointing to a huge, painted, stained glass bay window) It's out there!

BILBO: I can't just go running off into the blue! I am a Baggins, of Bagend! 

GANDALF: You are also a Took! Did you know that you're great, great, great, great Uncle Bullroarer Took was so large he could ride a real horse. Yes! Well, he could! In the Battle of Greenfields, he charged the goblin ranks. He swung his club so hard, it knocked the Goblin King's head clean off and it sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole. And thus the battle was won. And the game of golf invented at the same time. (sly smile)

BILBO: I do believe you made that up!

GANDALF: Well, all good stories deserve embellishment. You'll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back. 

BILBO: Can you promise that I will come back?

GANDALF: No. (two knowing beats) And if you do, you will not be the same.

From New Line Cinemas: The Hobbit



Everyone is a SUPERHERO!  And I do mean EVERYONE!  No exceptions granted.  Yes, even you 'reluctant superheroes.'  Especially all you 'reluctant superheroes!'    Those of you who are still playing 'hard to get' with the Universe. You know who you are!  For there is a deep uneasiness within your very being that constantly shows you whispered signs of a CALLING yet to be fulfilled.  A mission so majestic in scope that it scares you!  So you are still refusing its call. And that's OK.  FOR NOW! But get ready, for it won't be long before you will be called off the sidelines of life into massive action. Just sayin'!

For all of life itself is a Superhero's Journey.  An experience of radical spiritual transformation.  In which the Universe expresses itself through and as US!  The Grand Creator seeks to expand always and in all ways.  It's the very nature of God herself.  And as the late legendary physicist Stephen Hawking discovered, "The boundary condition of the Universe....is that is has NO boundary."  No boundary and that means NO LIMITS!  You chose to come here to carry out a CALLING that was Divinely Devised.  You carry a divinity spark of pure SPIRIT that is 100% heroic!  Part Martin Luther King Jr., part Yoda, Wonder Woman, and Captain America, but all Christ Consciousness!  By fulfilling your unique Mission, the byproduct is assisting and adding to the expansion of the Universe.  Which ultimately means creating more heaping buckets of LOVE!  The core component of all that is.......

The extraordinary spiritual teacher and master coach Martha Beck, in her book, "Finding Your Way in a Wild New World," describes all of us SUPERHEROES this way:

"Most of us feel a sense of mission involving a major transformation in human experience; a strong sense that whatever that mission is, it's getting closer in time; a compulsion to master certain skills in preparation for this half-understood personal mission; high levels of empathy; an urgent desire to lessen the suffering of humans, animals, and plants; and a loneliness stemming from a sense of difference, despite being generally social. "

She calls this group of Superheroes 'The Team.'  I call us The Legion of Love!  If you would like to officially join this team, just let me know and your t-shirt and pin will be in the mail, pronto!  ;0)

We aren't here so much to save the world as we are to SHIFT IT!  If you are here now, it means you were 'tagged' by the Universe to discover and unleash your Super Heroic Higher Self on this planet!  And you chose to accept this 'Mission Possible', because THAT IS WHAT SUPERHEROES DO!  We seek the grandest of adventures.  BLISS is our birthright!  And we devour any chance to experience it in all its magnificence! When we are summoned into 'being of service', we don't walk, we eventually run toward our CALLING!  

As the master of myth magic himself, Joseph Campbell said, "It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time- namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.  When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say,  follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be." 

Our government is in complete turmoil, climate disruption is threatening our way of existence, the middle class is shrinking by the day, and fear and hate have created one of our countries, if not the worlds, greatest periods of divided disconnection.  And while there are many who have awoken from their slumber, still others are stuck in choosing spiritual sides.  Either stay in the darkness, where it's safe, or have the courage to be reborn into a new identity.  That of a Superhero!  The Superhero everyone came here to be!  

Becoming a Superhero isn't easy. Far from it!  That fancy cape must be earned!   You must leave behind the world of comfort you think is protecting you from pain, to step into this New World that holds the truth of your Supreme Power.  And you know at times,  it's gonna hurt.  But aren't you in enough pain already? If you aren't already following your personal CALLING, I'm sure you are experiencing periods of listless low energy, disillusionment, being directionless, or the burning knowingness there is more to life than 'this.'  Perhaps your life feels meaningless and devoid of emotional zest.  Maybe you've even put your desires back on the bookshelf of broken dreams.

Hiding from your authentic self isn't the answer you seek.  It never is!  Superheroes are built for anything and everything this world can dish out!  The very process that birthed us into this reality caused your mother a great deal of suffering.  (And that's why everyone knows mom's are all Superheroes!)  Any birthing process causes suffering. My very definition of the word itself is:

Summoning our
Ultimate
Fears &
Frailty
Encouraging
Rebirth

But please remember that you don't have to take one single step of this Journey by yourself. Again invoking the sage words of Campbell, "Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us.  The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had though to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world."

And the world needs its Superheroes now more than ever! There is a strong disturbance in the Force/Source of the Universe.  And it's causing a mass crack in consciousness.  One by one, souls on this planet are beginning to awaken to the SUPER HEROIC AGE that is now upon us. Why do you think Superhero movies have completely resurrected and transformed Tinseltown's creative juices? Since the beginning of time, art has always played a vital role in its reflection of our current cultural distinctions.  As Harold Goddard states, "The destiny of the world is less determined by the battles lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in." And right now, we all love stories about Superheroes!  Wouldn't you agree? Like all great mythology, these stories are helping us remember our own heroic nature.  

When the student is ready, the teacher will always appear.  So I suggest you take a close look around. The signs are everywhere.  In the song on the radio, and the book you are currently reading. On the next TV show you watch or the next blog you read! (wink, wink) LOL  

Just as we are all Superheroes, our collective purpose is also one in the same.  We are all here to be of LOVING, bliss filled service to ourselves and each other! BOOM! Period and exclamation point! Our individual CALLINGS are the vehicles through which we deliver that form of service.  And your CALLING has just as much to do with what you are being as what it is you are doing with your life.  Think of it this way.  Your purpose is the beingness and your calling is the doingness part of your Superhero's Journey!  And by that I mean being kind, compassionate, patient, joyful and loving.  The doingness is the divine assignment you came here to fulfill!  Together, they combine to join forces like two BSF's.  Best of Super Friends!  And in tandem, they create the love filled expansion the Universe desires........

And for all your Super Heroic efforts, you get to experience all the abundance within the Universe! All the wealth, health, joy, laughter, light, LOVE and BLISS in the Cosmos!  As you ask, so shall it be given. That's a pretty fair trade off, right? I say Hell yes!  

The issue isn't IF, but WHEN will you decide to make that leap of FAITH?!  That very first step into the Heroic Life that is still awaiting you.  Worry not if you are still on the sidelines of life.  For your CALLING is very patient............ 

Please Be Patient With Me....

As My CALLING Has Been Patient...

And Your CALLING With You...

As CALLINGS Are Non Temporal...

Eternally Obedient...

A Contract Written With Remnant Tears...

From The Times They Were First Imagined..

And Birthed through JOY's LOVE and Laughter...

They are INTUITION Made Tangible Guide...

Sealed With God's Knowing Nod...

And So It Is........

Jeffrey Louis Martinez 

The Universe is starting to nudge you toward pure KNOWINGNESS!  For every season has its time, and for the Superheroes of this world, the clock closes in on midnight. The hour of heroic spiritual transformation is upon us all!

As it states in the revelatory book 'God I Am,' "There is no single path that leads to the realization of the Oneness of all Life.  Each soul has to walk its own path.  However - all roads lead to the same homeland.  In truth there is no road to travel, for what we call a path is but the awakening of a soul from its deep slumber. But, when our destination is in sight, you may find it was the grandest journey you have ever undertaken, because on this journey we are homeward bound."

So finish that book! Start that business! Open up that art studio! Become a teacher! Design that daringly new swanky building! Direct that movie! Write that symphony! Get up on stage and speak, sing, or dance your heart away! Whatever you do, please Do Not allow the gifts you came to unleash out into this world perish within your earthly body! Because THAT my friend, is the real definition of a SIN!

And please always remember there is only ONE thing to ever be afraid of.  And that, my New Age Nerds is 'Father Time.' Because not one of us knows when our time will be up!

BE SUPER HEROIC!

LOVE - SERVE- INSPIRE

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez