Lent It Begin

Hey, gang! Welcome to my life – where anything is possible and nothing is as it seems. I’m Freedom and I’ll be your host, coming at you from within the depths of Geistopia.

Welcome To My Life is a project, an experiment in Life and ART. A living storyboard, if you will. Its premise is that life is experiential, and that you can, and do, experience the life you choose. It is based on The Wheel of Life and The ARTs for The New Millennium

as life building tools.

Welcome to my Life is an I T.V. Studios/Geist…House Players Production, in association with the Center for Creative Inspirationalism. JustUs Productions, the parent company, would like to give a ‘Shout-Out’ to the following for their ongoing, and sometimes unknowing, inspiration and support:

Princess Cuddlebug

Princess Sunshine

Craze & Co.

The Shaman

The Pillar

The Entire Putt-Putt-Putter Clan

Professor Siggy Chong

The VanMan and General Ralph Glossop (may they R.I.P.)

‘Blue 326’

The Original KLT

The Looch

The Baker

Bert-on

Andy Pandy

The Mudder

The Prodigy

The Wix-ians

Piz-Niffer

Dancing Queen

Downtown Encyclopedia Brown

Mama Rabbit

And, of course, a very generous sponsor who (not-so-much) wishes to remain anonymous.

It is…Sunday, February 18, 2018. Time...Forgiving

Theme of the Week – Humility

It was a conversation between The Pillar and I that solidified this as a Theme. I don’t know exactly how it came up, but we were talking about how Humility is a difficult discipline to master. It is needed. One must always carry that nugget of humbleness through whatever one does. But, it is a fine-tuned balance that is required. Too little Humility and, no matter how capable or talented one may be, no one will ever see it through the facade of greatness. Too much Humility and the world will never know you because you will never show you. I like the moments of Humility that I receive in my life when I am reminded that there are things I don’t know, things others can do better than me, and that there is always a higher purpose than myself.

Lesson of the Week – What You Feed Energy Into Grows

This is very akin to Ask & It Is Given and What You Put Out, Comes Back To You. It’s really a simple and practical notion. That being said, though the story of my ‘poverty,’ and how it plays out, is important to this journey I need to be careful not to become tangled in, or anchored by, it. I never use to focus on money. I never use to focus on ‘the problem.’ I got this reminder reviewing old videos. The problem has always been there but I never use to make it important. I just went about my life doing what I should, dealing the best I could. Somehow, through all of that, things always managed to work themselves out. Truth is, I experienced a lot more blessings, was more abundant, then than I do now that I am trying and pushing so hard. So, moving forward, I am going to try to be aware of just how much I write about and what I write.

Observation of the Week – I Am That I Am

This Observation is so repetitive that it could be a Theme. Sometimes, I think it is part of The Cycle. It seems I always come to this Observation at the end of a struggle. My life shuts down one piece at a time until I am left with nothing but myself and no clear definition of what that means. So, I start to pay attention to the things that are a recurring presence – the Themes, if you will. Then I see it – the same patterns, the same projects, the same regimens and routines and beliefs. As I look back, the more I focus on these things, the more progressive and abundant life seems to be.

So, it was the week of Lent. I didn’t quite see it coming. It just snuck up on me.

This year, Lent followed another pattern [Cycle, Theme] present in my life – The Day Before, The Day Of, and The Day After. This is a concept that Dancing Queen shared with me over a decade ago. I can’t remember now if she put it towards all holiday or just birthdays. One’s the chicken and one is the egg. I don’t know. I’ve been doing it for so long now. It seemed natural at the time. When I thought about it I realized that we pretty much do it anyway. Two perfect examples are Christmas and Thanksgiving. So, I started to apply it to my life. The Day before always tends to be the day when most of life shuts down or takes a break little by little. Preparations for the next day begin, perhaps even a glimpse of celebration. Then there is the Day of – the Day of Celebration. ‘Nough said. And, finally, The Day After. This day is an ever-changing enigma. Sometimes there is recovery. Sometimes hustle and bustle. But whatever is happening it always seems to herald a shift in focus or direction. So, this is how I make my way through any major Holy-day I engage in, and even those I just sort of drift through.

Lent is a new one on the list. I was in no way expecting to have a Trio of Days…and I was half way through it before I realized it was happening.

I’m hoping to use the Lenten season as an opportunity to shift a lot of things. Give up some habits. Take up some new ones. Perhaps even revisit some old ones. [I’m not really off to a bangin’ start.] Nonetheless, my heart is in the right place. Or, at least someone thinks it is.

I remembered this week why I switched from writing to video. I thought the writing was taking too much time.

(Hahahahaha)

Of course, little did I realize just how much time the videos would take.

The difference is that with the videos I can move around and do other things as I purge and form my thoughts. With the writing, I’m kind of stuck in one place. [I don’t really do that so well.]

There are always a thousand and one thoughts in my head at any one given time. When I sit to write them out it takes me hours, sometimes days, to sift through them. Back in the day the WTML post was actually a day long process. I would just peck away at it piece by piece all day long doing odds and ends and whatnots in between. Every week I finish posts, look back on them and instantly make a list of all the things that I had in my head that I never touched on. I could write and write and write on forever and never feel finished.

I had no sooner finished last week’s post and I was working on four more – this one, which is not surprising, the ‘Prognosis’ entry on ‘The Cycle’ that I posted earlier in the week, a ‘Prognosis’ entry on Themes which is still in the works, and somewhere along the way there was an inkling of a ‘Director’s Notes’ entry.

(Or Two…)

I felt blessed and confident this week. Even with all sorts of things getting stalled and mixed-up, and sometimes just downright chaotic. I have a lot of work ahead of me. A LOT of work. [This, of course, being between myself and G-d.] A lot of pieces have been placed before me over the past several weeks. But…We Are Never Given More Than We Can Handle. I just need to sort through them all now and let them find their places. Some things may need more focus and determination, others may be ‘back-burnered’ for the moment.

My weeks always seem so long. I do not know if it is the actual level of activity or the fact that I try to be very aware of my week so I can capture it here. The truth is, as I start to write this, it is Friday and I can barely remember Monday.

The week certainly was a frenzy of activity though. I had 2 rehearsals at the middle school, 5 shows at the theatre 4 Pow-wow (3 with The Shaman and 1 with the Pillar), and 2 shifts at the new job. In between there was time with the Princesses, some moments of organization, and some direction taken towards crafting. And, of course, there was WTML.

If you take a look around the site you will notice that I have taken action on some of the ideas tossed around last week. I added the two new categories and even posted in one. I also added a video on the video page. I just wanted to get an idea of how it was going to work [and how I am going to work it.]. I’m still not certain if I like it or not. Nonetheless, the video is The 8th Day of Freedom, Pt.-1 and is probably one of my favorite videos.

Matthew Geist, M.D.

I’ve always had an inclination towards music, or, at least, a fascination with it. I grew up around music. All of my life my father has been a singer and comedian. I have done theatre – mostly musicals – off and on since 9th grade. Despite that, I’ve never really been good with music. I’ve not really ever been able to play an instrument – though I keep trying. And, up until recently, singing has always been a challenge for me. Not to say it wasn’t a challenge this past time but it seemed easier, more natural.

So, imagine my surprise when The Be-ing puts before me a paid gig as a “Musical Director.” If it hadn’t been for the source of the opportunity I probably would have ‘ignored’ it. The opportunity came to me through the director of the production of Sweeney Todd I had done in November. Soon after the show closed, she contacted me and said that she had a friend/associate in need of someone to help teach the music to her students. Like I said, normally I would have just walked on by such an opportunity. Under other circumstances I would have considered myself far from qualified. So, why would I put my name in for it?

Well, at the end of the production the question I was left with was, “What?” What could have been so important about that production that The Be-ing, The One True Spirit, stripped everything else away from my life leaving me with nothing to focus on but the production? That is precisely what happened. All work ceased, coming to a screeching halt. I found two different jobs during the rehearsal process. Both were put off for three weeks. Neither ever started. So, what is it that I was supposed to get from it all?

When a paying gig [with a Sweeney connection] appeared it was kind of hard to ignore. I contacted the woman in charge and asked, more specifically, what she was looking for. Again, someone to just teach the notes to the kids. I explained to her my abilities and limitations. I told her I could plunk out the notes on the piano, but probably little more. I couldn’t even promise that I could do it in the proper time frame. They hired me anyway.

It has been a challenge, to say the least. Almost every week I am learning a new song, usually in several parts. Each week I am making a rehearsal track for each part of the song. I have faced the challenges and I have looked for the Lessons. After all, it is so very obviously from The Be-ing, so there must be an opportunity for growth and learning. I’ve noticed each week, each song, seems to challenge me just a little bit more. It’s been like a step-by-step crash course in music. The first week it was mostly just learning over how to read all the different parts of the music. There was treble clef and bass clef, different parts, different keys. It made me aware of the scope of everything. Since then, each song has just presented its own individual challenge. The next song had me focusing on playing multiple parts. The next song was more about learning timing. And, the last song put it all back together again.

It has been hard to play the songs in rehearsal at a pace that is fair to the kids but we have been muddling through. This week we had a review of all music. It was the first time I did not have to play through each of these songs. We used the performance tracks. I was able to listen to them. I was able to give notes and guidance. I was able to follow the timing when I was reading and listening and not playing. For the first time, I actually felt like a Musical Director. There’s still a lot of work to do but I face it with enthusiasm.

Inspiration, Direction & A Blessing

I believe it was actually the first day of Lent when I heard a knock at The Cave door. It was The Shaman. “I was just thinking of you.”

Truth be told, he never just ‘thinks of me’ and he rarely just visits. There is always something up his sleeve. We chatted and chatted for only about an hour. In that time many interesting things came up.

First, there was the ‘Guest.’ At one point I was shuffling about the cage and as I turned I caught just a glimpse from the corner of my eye. Just a passing flash. I let it go because it is so commonplace around Geistopia. Then, suddenly, the Shaman’s head snapped in that direction. “I thought I saw someone there.”

“Yeah. You did.”

Then we carried on with life and I realized that whatever is happening in my life is already set. It’s been in motion since before I even put it to question. What is happening is what is and there is nothing I can do about it at this point. It will be about six weeks before I see the shifts and transformations fully at work. Then I remembered…Slow Down. Of course, no reason to be in a hurry if there’s nothing I can change at this time anyway. Just take it day by day and do my best to get through each as strongly and productively as possible.

Before he left he handed me a gift. It was something I had needed for Ceremony. I hadn’t mentioned it to him. He just left it. When I went to put it away something fascinating happened. I grabbed a container for it and when I opened the container there was already some in there. Suddenly where I had none I now had ample. Later that night I shared with the Prodigy, for Ceremony of his own. And, in the morning, I found that I still had plenty left for mine.

Finally, a few side notes. First, please feel free to leave comments, questions, and concerns. I don’t know you are there if you don’t say, “Hi.” But, also, you’re experience of WTML is just as important as mine. So, let me know what you think. Secondly, if you would like to connect, or find out more about me, you can find WTML on Facebook @TheNewWTML or myself at @rev.mgeist.

So, without hesitation…

For now and for always, from here in Geistopia this is your beloved Rev wishing you Peace, Love, Light and Freakishness, baby!