Your body is an ambassador,
a communication technology, really,
and you are the Message
given it to convey to the world.
Right off you might assume
there would be far simpler
and more reliable
delivery mechanisms
available in the cosmos
for sending Messages, but
the Writer has a unique
problem in that Everything
She touches comes to Life…
Alright, alright, shush
and look here, now-
it’s not a problem,
it’s an Opportunity
is really the best
way to think about it
because the condition is,
well…
Permanent.
As are the Effects.
Leaving that aside for the moment,
surely you can see
the potential for a bit
of inopportune signaling–
(not to mention widespread chaos,
famine, military industrial complexes,
the unplanned release of nuclear materials,
and bad television)–
if the Messages started
thinking about themselves
out of the blue
all by their lonesomes
like sugared-up
jail-break
preschoolers
without any real reading or writing
or grammatical training
and then began
thinking they were the
wrong ones, and so- well,
don’t even get me started- they
all tried to rewrite themselves…
Ha! That’s like a pack of crayons
deciding to redefine the colors…
which- batton down the hatches!- is exactly
what they (we) tried to do.
Some even decided
they weren’t fit for delivery.
Imagine that?
Now.
One: You are fit for delivery.
You came to Life, I know.
All a bit shocking really.
Medical calamities and
fiduciary responsibilities
and whatnot.
But the Truth remains that
Two: You are the Message,
…and…
the Message is meaningful.
Temporarily Necessary Instructions
for recovering the Original Message
that You are
read as follows:
Find a friend who can read,
someone like Jesus or Buddha
or Hafiz, or that zen guy next door,
someone like that,
(stop judging),
and show them every day what you see
and tell them what you think it says.
Then,
let them tell you what it really says.
Simple as that.
Oh! Also…
Temporary Symptoms of Reorientation Include
nausea, swelling, bouts of anger,
the incessant desire to throw a hammer
farther than anyone else on the planet can,
other inexplicable druthers, fatigue, guilt,
shame, and anxiety, As Well As
fits of joy that don’t last, moments of grace,
tears of relief, simple knowings that
wake you up in the middle of the night,
periodic changes to your Facebook page settings,
the discovery of new friends, and
the ability to taste food.
Embracing Forever 
Brilliant, laugh out loud brilliant. I’ve been reading your recent posts with increasing admiration for the clarity of your writing and the messages you are sending out over the interweb, and this one is another gem. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Don, thank you so much! So glad to make your acquaintance here in this humble e-abode. I assume you are THE Don of the lovely travel-blogue I have been reading lately? You guys have had some wondrous adventures and shown me a whole new world. Thank you, thank you, thank you… Michael
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I am indeed that Don, except in Puno, Peru, where I am Marcelino Zamata Hincho (http://alisonanddon.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/this-nomadic-life-four-miracles/)
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Yes, I just saw that! I kind of like the notion of stringing it all together into a freight train of identity and belonging, like Don Marcelino Zamata Hincho del Cielos Azules con Amor. But… you should come up with something that works for you… 🙂
Michael
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Boy Michael, you really inspire me to be a writer! Makes me want to go soak my head at the very least! 🙂
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Ha! Thank you, Brad. I could use a good soak myself. Writing is a way of standing in the ecstatic rain for me, of efforting and listening and receiving and refining and discovering and sharing and all of that rolled into one. Prayer, basically… Thanks for sharing in it with me.
Michael
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Lovely phrase (ecstatic rain) and description of your process.
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Oh this is just brilliant! Love the list of Temporary Symptoms of Reorientation (and know them well). Oh and the bit about all of us thinking we’re wrong and trying to re-write ourselves! Too funny. And too true.
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Yes, I keep telling myself they are temporary. Good to know you agree!
I think we’re in the phase of trying to “unwrite” ourselves, if you will, the end game of which is that holy, blank sheet of paper, which is the timeless invitation to collaborate with the original Author on any number of side projects and planetary retrofits. 🙂
Michael
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Yes 🙂
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Beautifully written, but at the risk of sounding foolish, I have to ask you to clarify what you meant by “reorientation?” You might have made mention in previous entries, but I haven’t been following your blog that long.. Still, very intriguing.
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Hi Anna, thanks for your note. By reorientation I was thinking about the process of shifting from identification with ego or falsehood to one’s real, authentic, God given self. I know in theory this needn’t be a painful or difficult process, and in reality is a movement towards grace and fulfillment, but I also know that in can be profoundly intense and difficult to navigate this transition. I tried to acknowledge the challenge and the difficulty in making one’s way between worlds, while noting that the way is also littered with priceless moments of relief. I hope this helps. You don’t sound foolish at all…
Michael
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“I know in theory this needn’t be a painful or difficult process, and in reality is a movement towards grace and fulfillment, but I also know that in can be profoundly intense and difficult to navigate this transition.”
Michael. I know what you are saying…and I believe you when you say it needed be a painful or difficult process.
And for me, it is.
This isn’t just a little bit of discomfort, but a tremendous amount of it.
It hurts more than any pain I’d ever felt. I don’t understand it. Why must this process be so profoundly painful for me? I want to get to the other side of it more than anything, but WHY is this transition so painful for some?
It’s as if the more I want it, the more it hurts. This doesn’t make sense.
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Casey,
I am not sure about your pain, but I can say that during difficult periods of time in my own life the pain was ultimately a falsehood, a misinterpretation, a meaning I had assigned to myself and the world that simply wasn’t true. While I believed and carried these false notions within me, they entrapped me, pinned me in situations that seemed to have no light or answers, and this was painful.
I think the transition is painful at some point for most everyone. I think an important thing is to find what reconnects you with the power of Truth, what thought or image or saying or words of wisdom take you there, and go there every day, even if it is just for the duration of the space between two thoughts.
Find that place of holiness and return there after every painful thought, and set those thoughts and feelings down there. Love knows what to do with every last one of them. You do not have to know… You merely have to be willing to give them up.
Michael
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