 I'm a bit on the nutty side. I laugh loudly, I love deeply, I smile broadly, I get pissed when provoked and hold grudges. I converse with the dead, hang with the angels, see spirits and I wear sneakers with skirts. Always.
Not kidding. I really do. I admit it, I am really nuts, and I love that about me and I love that about you. Yes, YOU! Don't hide your nuttiness from me, I can see it and more importantly I encourage it! Life encourages us to be nuts. If we weren't nuts we wouldn't have decided to come to this crazy, beautiful, amazing, scary, love-filled, hate-filled, brilliant and magical planet we call earth. Earth, in all of her psychedelic colors, unimaginable animal life, vegetation, waterfalls, oceans, mountains, hills, suns and moons, indescribable sounds, tastes. pleasures, atmosphere, etc., encourages us to live a full and rich life of nutty. How many times in this past week alone have you said, "that is nuts", "that is crazy", "that is insane", or my personal daily mantra of late "WTF is wrong with this world?!" Earth is crazy and its inhabitants are even crazier and that, my friends, is nuts! And there is no other way it could be. We inhabit this huge round crystal ball that is somehow floating around in a solar system that began with a speck of dust and a star. Crazy, right?! The Solar System was formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust which spun around a newly forming star, our Sun, at its center. The planets all formed from this spinning disk-shaped cloud and continued this rotating course around the Sun after they were formed. The gravity of the Sun keeps the planets in their orbits. They stay in their orbits because there is no other force in the Solar System which can stop them. Yup, nuts! And here we are thinking somehow that we are supposed to be all serious.. to not have fun with this? C'mon. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who may be the only living man who understands enough about how this thing works pokes fun at it. That guy cracks me up. We can not sur-thrive unless we embrace our inner nut. Anyone of us, at this very moment could spend hours, if not years, debating the current political system, the economic outlook, the races, religions, education, health care system, global warming, as well as numerous other current issues that do indeed need to be discussed and "fixed" to make human life on earth more balanced, but let's keep the nutty alive. I'm not advocating insane or delusional. That nut needs to stay in its shell. I'm not a fan of greed, pharmacy over food, fiction over fact, religious wars, poverty wars, war of any type and if I had it my way, 90% or our current "leaders" in this world would be put on their own special island where they can create their own special hell and leave us nuts alone to create our Utopia. I am advocating freedom to live fearlessly in our own uniqueness. I advocate turning off the television, putting down the books, leaving the radio on mute, leaving your phone at home, unplugging the internet. I am advocating tuning into ourselves and our own personal uniqueness, whatever that may be. I am advocating thinking about how incredibly awesome you are and how your own brand of nuttiness is making this gorgeous piece of artwork that we inhabit home. I am advocating owning both your darkness and light. Loving who you are and what you see when you look in the mirror. I am advocating knowing that here, right now, without YOU, without me, this world would be less. Less amazing, less beautiful, less psychedelic, less enjoyable, less creative, less diverse, less real. Without you, without me, without them, we are less and being less is unacceptable. Wear your hair purple if that makes you happy. Eat only veggies or eat only meat or eat both. Practice your religion and leave others to practice theirs. Drive an orange car, ride a motorcycle. hike a mountain, splash in a stream, swim in the ocean, ride your bike uphill and fly downhill, ski, run, laugh, live, sing, yell when you are pissed, cry when you are sad. Build your tribe of like-minded individuals and leave other tribes alone. Beat the crap out of a punching bag, eat ice cream or not, dance with abandon, wear sneakers with skirts. Tell a dirty joke and even better laugh at one. Be determined to live a life worth writing about, but above all, live your life in your own nutty way and let all others do the same. Love yourself, love the earth, love one another and love your nutty life.
0 Comments
 I've always been a John Lennon fan. I must have been exposed to John Lennon while in the womb because I can not remember a time when I wasn't a John Lennon fan nor a time when his words didn't in some way either come into my head to either save my ass or to kick my ass. His words, his spirit, his ideals seem to be woven into my DNA, so when I see or hear a quote from John Lennon, I stop whatever I am doing and I ponder. Especially one that I have never heard before. "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." ~ John Lennon This is the quote that appeared before me without even looking while feeling the need to write something. I always know when I need to write something because I get this incredible heavy feeling in the back of my head and I feel an inexplicable need to sleep. Most of the time it is a message from my guides that seeks to be heard, sometimes I need a nap. Tonight it is a message. Is there more to music than what you hear? More than the lyrics, more than the rhythm, more than the tune, more than the sound. What do you hear, Jennifer? What do you posses? More like what is possessing me, but hey, I'll play along. Careful. Fine. I do hear more than music. I hear life. I hear love. I hear community. I hear meaning. For me, music isn't the lyrics, notes, rhythm, sound. Music is the sound of life. Music is the rhythmic beat of my heart, the gentle breeze as it wisps past me, the soft breath thru my nose, the gentle tap of my fingers on the keyboard, the click of my heels. Music is the chirp of birds and the song of peepers. It is children playing, people laughing, lawn mowers and chainsaws carving natures picture, dogs barking, leaves blowing, cars speeding by with radios blaring. Music is a backdrop to a party, a hymn at a funeral, a song in your soul, a tune in your whistle. Music is the vibration that moves us closer to one another. Music is the continual underlying vibration, sounds for most, that are uniquely interpreted by each individual soul in which God speaks. What? They way in which you interpret unique vibrations into sounds is the way your soul hears God. It is nourishment for your soul's growth. So, you are telling me that God speaks to Stacy using the Rolling Stones and God speaks to me using the Beatles. No. Oh. We are explaining that each member of the Rolling Stones and each member of the Beatles heard and interpreted vibrations that uniquely resonated a feeling, a desire, a spark, an epiphany of sorts that led to the recipe of sounds and words that became the music in which you hear, in an individually unique way that your soul in turn interpreted into soul growth. This specific type of soul growth is another way in which God speaks to YOU. Well, it appears to me God liked talking to the Beatles way more than the Stones. God doesn't pick favorites. I do. That is why you remain a "sprouting seed." Cute. Tonight I was one in a community pulled together by music to help one of our own during her personal life crisis. A young, vibrant, loving and gifted soul, with a loving community beside her, is facing an uphill battle in her victory over Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Her life forever different but not cut short. A community different too. I watched, no, I felt, friends and strangers sing the chorus of beloved songs in the auditorium of a small elementary school that only weeks before heard the cries of anger at the announcement of its closing in the near future. I heard the history of the building whisper its stories to me while Sam and Ron passionately sang for a hopeful crowd. Sam's voice blending with the Angels as Ron channeled the composers of long, long ago. With each blending of voice and each rise and fall of the notes, I started to see the chimes singing in the wind, the raindrops grouping lyrically into a puddle and the symphony of waves, rocks, birds, pianos, saxophones, guitars, rising together in a vibration that furthers us closer to our highest selves. I felt, with my eyes shut and ears opened, the beauty of our world and its love for us. I began to, in some small way understand a possession of my own music. Tonight we were a community in concert, brought together for one. I moved with the rhythm of life while pondering its music. Music touches us. It reaches into the depth of our beings. It conjures memories, sparks love, motivates our workouts, lulls us to sleep, nurtures our creativity, lifts our spirits, speaks to our souls. Music spurs discussions between friends and strangers. Almost weekly my old high school friend, Aaron, will spark a new discussion about a record, a song, a band, and I, will quietly and curiously observe as their knowledge of this music is far greater than mine and laugh as the conversation typically becomes an essay into each others life. Music will ask questions like Pete Seeger's "Where have all the flowers gone" Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll stop the Rain" The Clash's "Should I stay or should I go?" Crosby Stills and Nash "For What its Worth" The Who "Who are You" Music also tells us stories. Stories like Arlo Guthrie's, "Alice's Restaurant", Bob Dyan's "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Heart" Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" Simon and Garfunkle's "Mrs. Robinson" Which also asks the question "Where did you go, Joe DiMaggio"? Oh! Clever! Music will define us either deeper into or further away from our individual beliefs; John Lennon's "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and "The Rising" Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" Rush's "The Trees" Music, in whatever form resonates with the listener, is the vibrational thread that binds us together. Music is ours to posses. To create the perfect conditions for growth within our individual garden. Music is the soil, the water, the sun, the moon and the perfect environment for which our soul seed blossoms. What do you hear, Jennifer? What do you posses? I hear grace. I posses a promise. Music is a promise that life will continue to go on. The wind will always blow leaves, the waves will always crash against the rocks and fall back across the sand. Birds will always chirp and dogs, unfortunately, will always bark at 6 am on a Sunday morning. Children will play, hearts will beat, blood will pump, sighs will be sighed. Angels will always use our voices and composers will always find a way to come back to play again. Tears will drop, noses will blow, laughter will be heard, songs will be sung. John Lennon will always be on the radio somewhere. Tomorrow may not look like today, but the music in which life vibrates will always bring us a new promise of life everlasting. "Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun." ~ John Lennon  Picture by Jennifer Belanger Spring has sprung and with the arrival of green grass, green leaves, warmer air, bluer skies, singing birds, daffodils and seedlings popping up in gardens all over so arrives the overload of all things money.
Yes, it is spring and rather than focusing on the beauty of nature, we are being inundated with the reminder that not only is grass green, but so is money. Billboards with huge pictures of money pouring out of windows, reminding us to update our air conditioning, borrow money for home improvements, grow money with higher interest CD's, plant seeds of money today and watch them grow all summer. Commercials telling us to save money at the local Home Depot or Lowes for all of our weekend warrior projects. Money, money, money...how to earn it, how to grow it, how to cultivate it, how to keep it, how to love it, how to have more of it, how to whatever you can imagine, there is a way to do it. Life runs on money, especially, it would appear, in spring. I love spring. Well, maybe not the May flies and allergies, but the rest, yeah, I love it all. I love the renewal of energy that comes with spring. The simpleness of spring and the hope it grows for a new season. Tiny sprouts getting ready to grow into food for us. Whether it be edible, nourishing food or food for thought, Spring sprouts bring us nourishment after a long winter rest. We are awakened and ready to grow and boy does commercialism know it. We've been programmed to always think about money, but never more than in spring. Every day I open up an email offering me a new way to think about money, to learn about money, to allow money to flow to me, or to give away my money in order to bring more money to me. Every time I turn on the tv there is a commercial, a new report, a guru, a something to guide me into the dark, the scary and complex world of money. The world in which I must need help in because so many are offering to help me in it. The world where green grass means nothing unless it is growing money somewhere and where leaves aren't the only things that grow on trees. Oh, Yes, Money. Great and Wonderful MONEY. All these reminders, these classes, these commercials, these teachers who so graciously remind me how worthless, how uninspired, how useless, boring, simple and small I am without enough money. How absolutely insignificant my life is without abundances of money and in just a few easy steps for the easy payment of only... or by shopping at the right store and investing in the right bank and listening to the new guru I too can be fulfilled by having money. I'm calling bullshit on this. BULLSHIT! Money Sells. Money sells faster with the insinuation of fear and I'm not buying into it. No amount of money will fulfill me or enhance my life unless I understand what is of value and what is not. Yes, money is indeed very helpful in today's society and money does tend to make the world go round money is necessary for basic survival. I like being able to pay my mortgage, drive a car, be warm in the winter, eat, but for fuck's sake, can we stop being intimidated by money? Could we just enjoy the little flowers that are smiling at us when we smile at them without wondering how much money it will cost to enjoy them? Can we enjoy the symphony of the birds during the day and the owls at night without fearing if we are wasting our time enjoying rather than working? Could we stop looking at our bank accounts and start looking at the hiking path that will lead us to the most beautiful of waterfalls and see the riches that Mother Nature offers us free of charge? Is it possible to enjoy all that we have and enjoy earning money pursuing what we love without the constant fear of never having enough or never having what the other guy has? Can't we have it all without having all of it? Dear God, what do we have to do to catch a break? For one, we have to understand that money is not what propels us. Money is what holds us back. Money, no fear of the lack of money, keeps us from exploring life"s boundaries. The boundaries that our souls are here to explore and break. Think about this for a moment. Think of the word MONEY. Five letters when put together in this pattern elicit incredibly complex emotions in our egotistical, human mind. This five letter word has the potential to raise us or ruin us, but very rarely will it balance us, and balance is exactly what we need when it comes to money. I grew up in small town, USA, the grand-daughter of a highly respected businessman who resided on the main street of small town, USA. My grandfather was a good man who worked very hard for his respect and his money and I was graced with financial blessings because of this. I was also a motherless daughter. At 7 years old my mother died leaving behind my 10-year-old sister and two-week old baby brother. Money doesn't buy back the dead. My girlfriend, a very beautiful and successful singer lost her brother a few years back to cancer. He left behind 2 young children who will forever be without their father. Parents who will be forever without their son. Money doesn't buy back the dead. My best friend lost her dad at an age when she was just starting her own family. Her father won't be attending her children's weddings, nor did he attend their graduations, birthdays, holidays and other significant life events. Money doesn't buy back the dead. I could go on and on, listing every friend I have who has lost a child, a father, mother, brother or sister, but I don't need to because you have lost them as well. Money can't buy them back no matter how much money we have. Love and loss aren't dictated by money. Nor should our lives. Our lives should be lived and memories built in the pursuit of happiness, not the pursuit of money. Money does play a part in our lives, but never should it be so important that it consumes us and clogs us from simple joys and basic blessings, which are of course never basic at all. I type these words not as someone who has risen above the fear of money, but as someone who is guilty of falling prey to it almost on a daily basis and is lucky enough to have caught a few tidbits of wisdom here and there and nip the fear in the ass when it rears its ugly face. I caught myself last night when talking to my adventurous daughter, Paige, who packed a few bags last year and headed to CA in pursuit of her happiness. I fell right into the "you should be a nurse" conversation. You know, the "you need money, it is safe, it is respectable, it is secure" conversation that great mom's do when they think their babies need protection because somehow money and security go hand and hand. I caught myself quickly last night and for that I am grateful. Wisdom speaks very softly but does indeed speak loud enough to those who are willing to listen. Wisdom tells us that money is indeed a wonderful energy to surround yourself around without getting lost in its allure. Money offers us opportunities to grow, to expand and experience. It offers all things material for ourselves and our loved ones. It offers us tomorrows adventures if we are smart enough to live for only the magic of today. Money is an invaluable asset and I don't discount the necessity of it, but I also will never pursue it so much that it ruins my Spring. Typically the more money we have, the more we can spend, grow, share, explore, expand and play and in that way, money does make the world go round. Money in of itself holds no value, but how it is used, what it is used for and how it is managed is of value. The energy of money, like all energy is movement. Money must be used in order for it to be of value, but what is of value is what I pursue. Money can't buy me abundance. I can't plant money seeds and get money bushes. I can't call money on a Monday night and talk to it about football. I can't hold money on a cold night and I sure as hell can't feel its warmth from a tender hug or a passionate kiss. I can't hold it tight to me and nurture it as I did my children. Money doesn't text me out of the blue and asks "Are you smiling today?" like my friend, Steve, who I haven't seen in twenty plus years does every few weeks since he saw me falling down the rabbit hole during the elections. Money doesn't read my blogs and offer me thoughtful insights like my friend, Chris, who also isn't a daily confidant but an old high school friend. Money doesn't message me with some calming words of advice after he notices I may be heading into the crazy zone after the election of 45 in the way my old friend Ed did, who again I haven't seen since high school and currently lives in VA. Money can't give me A- blood like my best friend Stacey can. Money also can't get stupid silly drunk with me like Stacey can either! There is something to say about old money, but it doesn't hold a candle to old friends. Money is an energetic vibration that will rise with us when we pursue that in which we rise to. Maybe because I am a child without a mother I can see differently the pursuit of happiness or maybe because being without money doesn't frighten me as much as being without people does, but for whatever reason, I would rather pursue the joy of wealth rather than the pursuit of money. Happy Spring, everyone. Enjoy the abundance it has to offer. “Money is a guarantee that we may have what we want in the future. Though we need nothing at the moment it insures the possibility of satisfying a new desire when it arises.” --Aristotle “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” —Edmund Burke |
Jennifer Belanger Intuitive Medium
& Tarot Practitioner
Jennifer BelangerHi there! Archives
July 2019
Categories
Original art work by Jennifer Belanger
Life is messy. Embrace the beauty!
|
RSS Feed