Saturday, April 22, 2023

It's been a long time

Over the last few years, we've seen so many ups and downs.  We've seen changes for the better and setbacks to the detriment of all... but still this planet...EARTH continues to provide for us, and we are still here.  Today is Earth Day.  What are we going to do to celebrate her?  If I might use an old cliche' 'What would Michael Jackson do?'  then I will.  Since his passing it feels the earth's vibrational energy has been so different.  Michael was known to send so much positive energy into the universe with his words and actions & that energy multiplied within the masses of people by every human being who carried his vibes with them into the world.  When he saw wrong he called it out.  When he saw pain he lent a hand and his heart to ease it.  When he felt the universe yielding to the ravishes and perils we put her in with all of our greed and desire for more more more; taking a piece of her with each tree we mowed down, each pipe we shoved into her core, all the trash and pollution we heaped on her shoulders...and continue to do so today...he raised us to a higher level of awareness, insisting that we must STOP before it was too late.  But did we listen?  I think we did for a while when he told us point blank that we had little time left before the damage would be irreversible.  But are we listening now?  Let's turn it around, go back to the message of 'we are the world'.  Remember the visualizations of 'Earth Song' that brought us to tears.  The messenger is no longer physically with us, but his message can & must continue to live though us.  Don't give up. Yes. We. Can!

On this earth day let's make a vow to Michael's memory to do something to help our planet survive.  There are so many things to be done.  Find one..or two...and commit. Do it if not for yourselves, for future generations of young people who must find a way to survive.  Let's begin to fix our damage so they can start anew.  It's on our shoulders.  Our mess, not theirs.  Let's make the world that better place starting today💞

Happy Earth Day 

04/22/2023

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Manchester 5-22-17

Been a while since my last post, but as I sit here this day following one of the most heinous, horrific attacks on children and families enjoying leisure time together at a concert in Manchester, England I am reminded that the spirit of humans in times of tragedy is unbreakable. We hurt, we cry, we scream, we curse, we pray. But in the end we pull ourselves up and stand together in a united front & start the process of moving forward supporting our fellow human beings at what ever place we can. This amazing thing called love gets us through; and each time we reach into our hearts to help someone, it gets stronger. God bless those families affected by this tragedy.  We all will heal and together we will be made stronger.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Four Years...

Just sitting here tonight thinking that wow, in little more than 4 months, it will be four years since Michael Jackson, the kindest man who ever lived, died at the hands of those sworn to and oath of care for him.  Four years!  It makes me remember that one of the last things Michael told us was that we had 4 years to get it right.  Perhaps he was talking about the planet and the environment.  Perhaps he was talking about learning to love each other & living a peaceful co-existence. Or perhaps he was talking about him. I am the perpetual skeptic and one who has always believed that Michael knew that things were being planned and plotted against him.  Perhaps it was a message for us, giving us time to go through the many stages that would come with grief should tragedy befall him, to continue to question with an open mind what we would be told, the lies we would be fed.  Four years is still time enough to make wrongs right in most legal situations.  I will always believe there was a conspiracy behind Michael Jackson’s death.  I might never be able to see it proven, but I do believe that one day all truth will be revealed and will see the light of day.

Michael Jackson had a mind of his own, with his own agendas, and his own outlook.  He was the most prolific entertainer in the world. He had more than most of everything and stood to gain even more.  But he had no line item on his ledger to re-invest his fortune into the business.  No, no… not Michael!  He had other, far greater aspirations.  He did not intend to re-invest into SONY or any other industry.  He had plans to use his hard earned earnings for children and their causes.  He told us as much.  And just as we heard it from his own lips, certainly so did others who felt they would lose out on any such deal.  Even though they tried to bleed him dry off the top, even taking here and there that which wasn’t theirs for the taking, they were still greedy and envious and felt obliged to even more.  It feels as if there was an animosity in the air, and Michael knew the risks he faced.  Who knows what kind of stressors were placed on Michael after these announcements were made.  I mean, how dare he!  He told us that these will be my last shows.  What?  That’s a hell of an announcement to the ears of ones eager for it to go on and on so they would get richer and richer.  And to think that even from this final endeavor, there were no plans to break off an extra piece for the Industry.

There have been a lot revealed, a lot alleged, and a lot of suspicion over these 3 plus years since losing Michael.  Something’s got to give.  I only hope that we have learned something and have used this time to reflect and research and been a positive force on this earth.  In these 4 years that Michael told us we had to get it right, I hope in our own way we have been working towards that end; be it to change the world, save the planet, becoming more compassionate, or simply trying to tie all the loose ends together.  I just hope that we each are doing our parts.  It takes all of it. No offering is too small. Every one matters.

Come June 25, 2013 when I stand at the entrance of Forest Lawn, I want to be able to say to Michael that I am doing and will continue to do my best to make a change. I want him to know my heart and that I have always believed in him and what he stood for, over and above anybody else.  I want to be able to stand there in honor of him and finally say out loud Michael, I love you, I love you more.  Though I won’t be able to see his face or hear his voice, I know that he will hear me and I know that he will smile.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in his sight.  I know what must have been in his heart when he said we are the world…


Monday, January 7, 2013

And I will walk by faith

Today is January 7, 2013, a brand new year.  Tomorrow begins the  2nd week of the rest of my life.  I have made it this far and I don’t believe God will leave me now.  Three years, six months, and 2 weeks ago this day, I lost my faith.  I didn’t believe that I could face another day, take another breath, or even think about tomorrow.  But I did and I am here only by His grace.  There is not a day that has gone by since that fateful summer day in June 2009, that I don’t think about Michael, not once but many times.  There are still many days I wake up with a heaviness and a sadness that washes over me.  That has become my norm and I know that days like these will forever be a part of me.  So I brace myself for the tears should they come, or the emptiness that won’t be filled, or the comfort of knowing that this too shall pass.  Because it will and it does.  Michael is gone. Nothing I wish or hope or even pray for, can ever change that reality.  He is gone and life goes on without him.  It will be the same song, different verse for everyone.  Time is the teacher and it has taught me well.

Over these years and months and days of trying to understand what makes people do the things they do giving no thought to the consequences of their actions or the pain it will cause to others, I have come to accept that this is the world that we have come to live in.  Michael knew it and he tried to show us the error of our ways, get us to open our eyes and start making a change, before it was too late.  He was the messenger and was taken away by the very same lack of compassion that he tried to warn us about. He was afraid for the planet, for the children. Little did he know that before his words were cold on his lips that he would become the victim of the crime he so wanted to shield us from.  But when I look back on all those before him who tried to save the world using love as the weapon, their fates too were sealed.  It’s as if evil will not allow goodness to flourish and when it gets close enough to be a possibility death knocks on the door and someone lets it in.  Should we have known that by now?  Possibly.  But maybe we thought that this time, the door would be double bolted against the evil outside, forgetting that the devil is a liar and sometimes he’s already inside, an invited guest eating at our table.

In this lifetime, I probably will not see the world that Michael envisioned.  But I do believe that if the world continues to exist, that it will change.  It has to.  So I walk by faith that Michael and those who died before him for the sake of trying to save the world did not die in vain.  The energy, the love and the light that shone so brightly around and about them is still here and someday it will all combine together and form an impenetrable circle around this planet that no man can break.  That’s when everything that Michael spoke of, believed and shared with the world will come to pass and his words will live again.  His dream will finally dance. I have faith that God would not allow so many good people, God fearing people, to die for doing his good tidings; trying to teach the love he said we must have in our hearts, and then just leave them.  He will have the last stand, and they will dance.


Monday, December 17, 2012

Something I must say today - revised

This has been one of the hardest weekends I have experienced in my lifetime.  The horrendous slaughter of 20 innocent 6 and 7 year olds and the 6 adults (teachers, staff & the principal) has broken me emotionally and spiritually.  God Bless the victims and the survivors.  May they be protected in heaven and on earth.  This was not God’s will.  As I’ve always said, and as was the crux of the services at my own son’s funeral, God gives us choices.  He cannot and should not be blamed for every human tragedy.  We as humans living as a species with the ability to choose must accept some of the blame most of the time.

I have heard that this perpetrator (I will not further validate him by even mentioning his name) in the SandyHook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut was “mentally ill”.  He was autistic.  But is that to blame for his senseless violence?  It might have been a small pre-cursor, but I tend to believe not the reason at the core.

What else do we know about this young man and his life and his family relationship?  He was living at home with his mother, though he had somehow gotten hold to his older brother’s identification which would implicate him in these murders.  His older brother was not living there.  What was his relationship with his older brother to for him to orchestrate a mass murder and use his brother’s ID? Was he bullied? Ostracized?  Did he feel insignificant?  Invisible?  These are some of the questions I ask myself.  Why would wake up, kill his mother, take arms & transportation…and his brother’s identification before heading to SandyHook?  Why shoot your mother 4 times in the head and then shoot tiny innocent bodies multiple times with a high powered weapon?  I am no psychiatrist, but something in the back of my mind tells me that this young man was more angry than ill and determined to be seen and validated and remembered by any means necessary.  Perhaps he felt he deserved more than he was given from society.  His mother certainly had means and was well respected.  Perhaps he felt he too deserved to have some of that same acceptance and respect.  Maybe he resented being pulled out of school feeling it an unforgivable embarrassment.  Will we ever know?  It is obvious that he never intended for us to know as it has been discovered that he purposely tried to destroy his computer hard drive.  I guess he’s never seen Criminal Minds or Numbers or CSI or any number of those shows.  If it’s there, somebody will find it.

I have read and watched on the news people saying over and over that gun control will not stop those who are already wired to blow.  I disagree.  Maybe we can’t stop it but we don’t have to provide them the ability to legally purchase weapons of mass destruction to do it with.  If this young man had not had access to powerful arms, the numbers would not have been so high and the wounds not so prolific.  There is no need for people to to possess ammunition and weapons more powerful than those used in the military in their own homes.  It’s madness! We have witnessed over and over what putting these kinds of weapons in the hands of a madman can do.  It gives a narcissist a sense of empowerment knowing that he is now able to commit tyranny.  His main objectives:  You will see me. You will remember me.  You will know my name long after I’m gone.  And you will suffer for the rest of your lives for having not embraced me into your perfect worlds.  Insanity?  Possibly.  But it reeks of a desire to empower others who cannot fight back.  Empowered to go out in what they perceive a blaze of glory.

It is obvious that when a person has reached that breaking point out of desperation or frustration or any deluded sense of entitlement, he is ready and willing to die for it.  It no longer matters to him what people think or feel or how much pain his actions will inflict upon the living, only that his actions guarantees that he leaves behind a legacy.  The more innocent the victims, the greater would be the outrage and outcries of society. And in that vein, he knows in advance of his actions that more will be written and reported and at last everybody will be talking about the boy no one paid any or little attention before. And that sadly is his only purpose.  Don’t give him that notoriety.  Don’t remember his name.  Don’t give make him a legend.  He is a killer.  He is dead.  Remember the victims and those left behind. He doesn’t win, even in death.

For those reasons and  I am sure many others I have failed to mention, I feel there is an urgency for this country to be on heightened alert.  There are many people who find glory in violence.  Who knows from where the next murderer will emerge; but on what school or heaven forbid daycare center or hospital nursery, will be the next target.  Video game violence, on the big screens, on computers all across this country, is giving rise to an anti-social class of people who spend all their time alone, disassociated with other people, devoid of social skills, studying the tactics, the moves, the dynamics of winning by the process of elimination.  The object of the win is the higher the kill, the stronger your game piece becomes, and the more points you earn become.  Some of these games go on for days.

And so, these are my final thoughts  As parents, we must be vigilante and not allow any forms of violence to consume our children’s minds and their time. It kills their creativity, dulls their compassion, and renders them sometimes as outcasts.  Instead we should be teaching our children at an early age that there are real consequences to their actions, that there are positive ways to cope with stress, that they were born as a creative beings, and that they matter.  If one is not creating, he is destroying.  Don’t allow them to sulk in total isolation, locked away from society yet entertained by around the clock by violence in any form.  If not, well…the results speak for themselves.

Let us begin the conversations in our homes, in our schools, in our churches and synagogues, anywhere and everywhere people, families, congregate for good.  It’s up to us! We have the power as a people to turn this around.  But as is the old saying, it takes a village.

God Bless the families of children at SandyHook Elementary School; and the community and world surrounding them.  We love you and you are in or prayers.

Never forget their faces.  Never forget their names.