Catastrophe tour 2010 is on! Earthquake, tsunami, volcano –my itinerary this year seems to be following the crosshairs of recent natural disasters. Which probably makes them the safest places on the planet. Will soon go to DR, which shares the island with Haiti, to help build a church school in the mountains, and later this year will cross the Pacific and do 13 days of ocean kayaking, camping from uninhabited atoll to uninhabited atoll. Oh, yeah, one of the world’s top 10 beaches is in there somewhere too. Tonga trip keeps getting longer, and I’m seeing how I might have to “kill” an extra week in Paradise just to make connections work.
Not that I need to travel to find happiness. I breathe white light through the skin of my soul every day, and I hope you do too. The cues to magic are all around you. Take the trees. Don't they always seem to stand straighter in spring, like they are launching in slow motion, trying to reach escape velocity? But in the end they never quite summon the courage to let go of the earth. People are like that. Maybe that's why we wind up buried in dirt, as if we collapsed into our own roots. And yet, if that mortal destiny is inevitable, there is no reason for it to be premature. Nothing is stopping you from transits in nature, from soaring where you can, trying to reach escape velocity -- and sometimes doing it! Gravity should have no effect on your spirit, your mind, your heart. I'm always astonished to see people whose every instinct screams that truth at them, and yet they remain spiritually inert. Sadder still if, when they are shown how to become permanent escapees, they succumb to fear or guilt or some other useless rusting chain. You wouldn't think that would happen. The power of imagination and inspiration is within them, but something negative keeps them grounded like nested birds in the unknown night. To never achieve starlight or circle the silver moon or meet the sunrise before its appointment on the new horizon seems like such a colossal waste to me and an affront to creation. I celebrate reaching for optimization in every way. You don't have to BE optimum; you just have to reach for it. The magic is in the effort.
For those of you who have been asking, here’s a white feather update: I checked the Golden Meadow a week ago, and yes...amazingly, it survived another winter. … And thanks to all who responded with e-mails and posts to my "sex, love & terror" Q&A over on Storytellersunplugged last month. Your input was incredibly candid and insightful, and so this month's column tries to be just as honest and revealing with the results. Here’s the link: http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2010/05/16/thomas-sullivan-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-sex-and-told-me/
Photos below: the 4 at the waterfall are of Norby Nation -- the family that adopted me on a rainy day (I won out against a soggy cocker spaniel). Then there are 2 from the Coon Rapids dam, where rocker Tommy D and I biked one afternoon. And, yes, there are 2 new Doc Foto travesties as well. Sometimes the evil doctor really is funny. E.g. Superman/Sarah Palin. I have no idea who the female is in the one where he has Goldie-locksed me, but it has something to do with Crazy Heart. Doc Foto is Mark Manrique, a folksinger, water polo player, and lifelong friend with whom I regularly tie up a phone satellite for hours. The non-stop laughter drives his wife crazy. His laughter. I mean, it would drive my wife crazy too, if I had one. If you’d like to hear a haunting original song by Mark, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yLx_ShAbeA&feature=email Another of his originals is linked from my column this month.
If you want to spy on my crazy musings and largely illegal activities in small bites, may I invite you to follow on Twitter? It’s just some fun you can peep at anonymously when you want without having to interact. Samples of recent Tweets: “There is flying far, and flying long, and then there is flying high. But if you fly high enough, it includes the other two.” …and “Guilt is portable, courage comes and goes.” Here’s the link: http://twitter.com/thomassullivan. If you’re reading this on a mirror site, it may not have photos. I’ll be happy to put you on the mailing list if you email me at: mn333mn@earthlink.net. Past columns and newsletters w/photos are archived at the author’s website below under Sullygrams & Columns (http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/sullygrams.htm).
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/
http://twitter.com/thomassullivan
