A Final Posting on the Road from Holquin, Cuba written 3/23/2014

CREATING A NEW EARTH

Thirteen Things You Need to Know

The Maya consider the number 13 sacred meaning Love
Not written in order of priority 

Suggestions

• Come to these with and open mind and heart.

• Test them in you own experience to the extent you are able before you dismiss or discard them.

1.  Everything is connected to everything else energetically - everything.  All of life is sacred for this reason.  Nothing is inherently separate from any other part at this level.  Separation is a created illusion.

2.  All thought energy  (arising from emotions and experiences ) is creative of your experience(s) individually and collectively.

3.  What you focus on grows because thoughts drive energy; if to fear the result will be experiences of violence, wars and anger,  if to love, compassion and kindness the result will be experiences of peace, joy and fulfillment.

4.  Love, compassion, kindness and similar emotions are high frequency positive energies (vibrations) of unity and balance.  They have the inherent power to drive out or transform lower frequency energies.  None are more powerful, nothing can overcome them.  They are sacrificial by their nature.

5.  Hate, fear, anger and similar are negative, low frequency energies of separation, alienation and imbalance - flee them.  See 3. 

6.  Our True Nature or essence is life energy or consciousness - eternal Love in our limited understanding.

7.  We are from the unmanifest of many names;  God, Allah, Source, Buddha Nature, Creator, Universe, All That Is and more manifesting and experiencing itself in a myriad of form one of which is human kind.

8.  The Way to Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth remains eternally the same,  Love as manifest in the lives and teachings of spiritual masters (men and women) through the ages.  Some would argue the Christ called Jesus was the most highly evolved of these, a shower of The Way through his life and teachings.

9.  When you give of yourself in service to the greater good of all without expectation of reward it is impossible to not receive in some way. Thus "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

10.  The Way (Love) is narrow but not impossible (see 3).  It takes humility, prayer, practice, denial of self and an open mind and heart. 

11.  There are unavoidable consequences for every choice whether of action or doing nothing (also a choice), see 1. 

12.  Because everything is  interconnected (see #1) the means and ends are one.  For example when the means is violence the result will be the same.  And when love and compassion are the means the end will also the same. 

13.  Intention is more important than unattainable perfection.  Love and forgive yourself when you fall short in some way even as you would love and forgive others.


PS  Remember to have fun in the process "All the world's a stage..." Shakespeare. 

Peace Rider

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  Albert Schweitzer

Note:  Since originally posting this from Cuba I have made a few minor changes for clarity.

Cuba Adieu, from Holquin 3/20/14

Dear Friends,

This may be my last post before returning to Miami.  Time with friends and travel will keep me busy and away from a terminal. 

Raman Gonzalez and family isn't back yet.  If it works out I will see them in Gibara the 22 to 24th and return by bicycle here.  I will take a detour to check out Marina Vita near Guavalavaca. 

If I were to summarise my experience here in just a few words it would be tranquillo and blessed.  I heard the former spoken often.  Cubans have achieved what we have not, something that can't be bought - peace.  There are no guns on the streets, and very little violent negative energies coming through the media that children might have access to. 

Young children, dressed in neat, clean, purple and white uniforms are taken to school by their moms in places.  There is no fear of violence in the schools or on the streets at night.  It is one of the safest and most welcoming countries I have travelled in.  Like any society of human beings it is not problem free.

I'll be back.

Peace Rider

Special Moments on the Road from Holquin, Cuba 3/19/14

I stopped at a municipal museum in San Antonio del Sur on the south coast en route to Guantanamo.  It was a rest break and ended up meeting the Director and two other women.  At the end I decided to gift them with small pins Chris and Jim H. had given me of the Alaska Flag, Walrus and State outline.  Forget I had them until then actually.

They were shirt pins but all three women decided to try them on as earrings.  They all had pierced ears and they worked.   Joy and laughter on the road.  Have some photos I will share later. 

Earlier in Baracoa on the far east coast I was returning to my Casa after a folkloric performance by the Barrumba dance group.  It was late and dark with few people on the street.  The streets are safe to walk at night.  A van stopped me to ask directions out of town.  He thought I was a local and started speaking English after he heard my Spanish.  I thought he was a foreigner but asked. He was Cuban.  Another smile. 

I had a very enjoyable visit with Amigos in Puerto Padre to the northwest of here about 35 miles.  A scenic spot in a large bay but the economy is in decline.  I have one other shorter bike ride to Gibara in the offing to revisit Ramon and Rosario the pastors there before I leave.  They are in Havana at the moment not returning until the 20th.

My last day in Holquin, the Provincial Capital will be 26 March.  Will head southeast to Bayamo to catch an overnight train to Havana the 27th.  Have to be there a day ahead of time to buy tickets the morning the train leaves.  Into Havana the 28th in the AM, fly to Miami 29 March.

There is a being wonderful perfect.  It existed before heaven and earth.

How quiet it is.

How spiritual it is.

It stands alone and it does not change.

It moves around and around but on this account does not suffer.

All life comes from it.

It wraps everything with its love as in a garment and yet claims no honor. It does   not demand to be called Lord.

I do not know its name and so I call it Tao (pronounced Dao) The Way.

by Lao Tzu before the time of the Christ by Huston Smith in World Religions.

"The Tao" is within"  Huston Smith.

Peace Rider

On the Road from Holquin, Cuba 10 March 2014

Dear Friends,

A quick update to let you know I´m alive and well taken good care of by Friends in the Iglesia Evangelica de Los Amigos here. 

After Guantanamo City I realized my purpose in going that far was completed and decided to return to the Provinciaal Capitol to rest and visit more Friends or Quakeros.

When I finish this will ride to Puerto Padre northwest with a light load and spend a few days with other Amigos.  They are without a pastor at present.

My route of travel and a few highlights from Baracoa and back are in order.

After climbing the first hill enroute to Boca del Tumeri further east and seeing only more ahead I bagged it to save my energy for the Viaducto de la Farola, a serpentine dangerous stretch of road over the mountains to the south coast. 

Spent a night camped in a bamboo thicket and next day made it over to the drier south side.  Camped by the Rio JoJo, turned out behind the local cemetary.  But a welcome bath in the AM.

Hit the coast near Cajobabo where met a Norwegian couple, he married to a Cuban.  Rested at their new home and had a wonderful visit.  They met when she went to Norway to visit an aunt and later married. They had returned for a brief vacation with her family.

Stayed at first Campismo a Yacobabo del Sur.  Loud music and vibration kept me awake until into early AM.  A long days ride to Guantanamo from there.

From Guantanamo connected with the autopista to Santiago, turned off to go through Boniato then on to El Cobre, a beautiful Catholic Church in the hills with a long history although rebuilt to present state in 1927.

Next day on north through Palma Soriano as far as Pinalato.  At this point headed back to Mayari to again visit friends who had helped me earlier.  Went through Mella to get there.

Befriended again by a local couple and camped in their back yard.  Ate roast pig that night.

A long uphill grade over the mountains to Mayari the next day over a sometimes very rough forest road.  Some grades more than 8 percent.  Walked several of the steepest stretches early on that fortunately were paved and gave some traction.

Arrived friends place outside Mayari just at dark soaked after a passing rain shower and really beat!

Stayed several days to rest and recuperate before returning to Holquin about 50 miles to the northwest.  Fewer high hills and a lighter load by this time and made it before dark.  Now staying a a room in the church.

In and out of here until near leaving 29 March for Miami.

Peace Rider

Words from Guantanamo City, Cuba, 1 March 2014

Late the date before yesterday and very tired I arrived here and checked in to a Casa Familiar.  More of that later.   I may leave here today yet, west bound through Santiago. 

The US Navy base is only moments away by air.  It is enough for an American to be nearby on the other side of the razor wire and mine fields.

A side bar on the map of Cuba I carry says in part, two Marines were killed at Guantanamo at the beginning of the Spanish American War in 1898.  Afterward President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with the new Cuban government leasing the bay indefinitely for 2000 gold coins per year.  The agreement was forced on the new government through the Platt amendment.  "Since 2002 the base has included a detainment camp for captured al-Queda personnel deemed to be a risk to US national security."

We know from recent reports over 100 people are still held more than 10 years later without trial or hope of release.  Some could argue this is a form of psychological torture more severe than the physical torture some are reported to have suffered at our hands.  And what of those who must tend this facility?   They too suffer on our behalf?

You would be surprised to know my father Charles came to Gitmo as it was called then and perhaps still.  He retired from the US Navy Reserve at the onset of Parkinson's disease.  He passed 10 years later.  Both he and my mother Anne are at rest in Arlington National Cemetery.  He worked nearby as a civilian in a US Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks office later torn down to expand the cemetery.

I wondered what he might have to say to all that has happened at Guantanamo from another vantage point?  This is what came to me.

This is a mere snapshot in time of some of your history.  It is the past, it cannot be changed.  I make no judgment about it.  What will you choose to create from this point forward? 

You are not masters of the technologies you have created.  Many of you remain unaware that all things are connected energetically.  If you continue down the same path you will destroy yourselves.  There are unavoidable consequences for everything you think and do.  You are powerful creators or your experiences individually and collectively.  Doing nothing is doing something. 

Climate change still in in its early stages is upon you.  Your children will suffer the consequences if you allow contamination of your atmosphere to continue unchecked.

For those of you coming to these words for the first time do not give up in despair.  Before a new day breaks there is always a time of darkness.  It is worth repeating the only thing you can change is yourself.  It takes determination, persistence and discipline to overcome years of cultural conditioning.  The choice is yours as in all things.  Put another way your True Nature (Love and Light) will not blossom until you water the garden. Know too in your hour of greatest need help is always available from the Source many of you call God.  But you have to ask. 

For those of you already high on the ladder of expanding consciousness your work remains to hold love, joy and peace in your hearts.  Go where the greatest need of the moment takes you.  Do there what is called for with love and compassion.  You make a contribution to the well being of the whole by giving of yourself in service to others.  When you stumble remember to love and forgive yourself.  Your intention matters more than an unattainable state of perfection.

Live the high ideals of your founding fathers not your worst fears and doubts.  Let your acts of love and compassion speak for themselves.

End the embargo of Cuba.  Close the Guantanamo Bay carcel/jail.  Return you part of Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban people.  It is the right time.  It is the right thing to do. 

Peace Rider for Charles, Commander, US Navy Reserve, at rest.