Wednesday December 3, 2009
Dear friends and loved ones,
So we’ve come around again to the last month of the year. We’re hoping that in each of your lives there have been rays of light and love. Yet I know this has been for some a year of incredible loss as well, as I join my dear friend in the sadness and loss of both her parents and her husband. But as 2009 comes to a close, I give thanks that more of us have awoken to the reality of secret agendas designed to harm and eliminate more of us and are changing the tides of their proposed outcomes.
Reality?
One of the things that Paul and I do is watch videos, both for information and for enjoyment and entertainment. We have an interesting video store here in town. As well as a selection of videos, they also sell an assortment of books on topics suitable to a graduate course in transpersonal psychology, go figure? Their selection of videos are not all that much different from those you’d find in any independent video store in the States, if you could still find an independent video store there, though all the titles are of course in Portuguese, even those which are originally made in English. So we go every few days and pick one or two to watch in both English and then in Portuguese, always with subtitles in the pursuit of a better grasp and understanding of the language. But there’s something we discovered a few years back that I wonder if any of you have also discovered? In the genre of films called “science fiction” are hidden truths and esoteric agendas of the powerful “elite” who are orchestrating life on the planet. Just watch a few and see if you agree with us. They are alarmingly real, many of them.
A few days ago we picked up a video called “Thirteenth Floor.” Normally I fall immediately asleep a few minutes into the video as some of you know. But this one held my attention and was one of those rare films that I wanted to start over from the beginning as soon as it ended. So I am recommending it to any who are interested. It deals with the topic of reality and time travel….
More recommendations…..
Last week we watched a You Tube video called The Esoteric Agenda- the final version. Although this is not a new film, it gives an interesting review of history and a summary in the last couple sections that’s quite good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
But the one we are highly going to recommend for everyone to see, even though we are still only on part 5 of 46 at the moment is David Icke’s live presentation in Melbourne in April which is now available in 46 (10 minute) parts http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Unlike his older talks, at least thus far into the talk, his emphasis is more on consciousness than journalistic reporting of events. If our internet connection was better, we’d drop everything to watch it straight through, but as it is we have to wait to load each section in when the internet speed allows.
So I know, or at least am guessing, that those of you who are reading this are thinking, “I don’t have time to do that! I have a busy life. I have a job, stuff to do….” Am I right? Please, take the time. You will be happy in the end you did, because it could change everything. What if you could have a life that wasn’t so busy? What if your job and your responsibilities didn’t take up the majority of your time and you had more time to do the things you enjoy, which bring you pleasure, peace and joy? Or how about having time to simply be - not do? It is possible, you know.
A different kind of life
Some time back I talked about how it feels to us like we traveled through the looking glass – like we went to the other side of the mirror, so to speak. In this place in particular it often feels surreal, but here it is very different from other places in Brazil in that regard. For some of you this might not be as good a fit as it seems to be for us. But allow me to paint a general picture for you:
In the US, like many people we lived a very nice life. We had a cool house, two good cars, comfy furniture, great food… we also had a mortgage that cost in the neighborhood of $1500 or so a month, health insurance that cost upwards of $650 a month, but that was only because we were lucky enough to purchase it through our business account and would likely cost more than twice that much for a couple not lucky enough to own their business, food bills that ran somewhere around $800 a month, electric bills, phone bills, internet bills, trash service, hmmmm, lots more but I’m not remembering. Luckily, a few years ago we eliminated all our credit card debt and stopped using credit altogether, switching to only using debit cards and spending only what we had. Granted we still had a hefty student loan and super high medical bills, but all the others we’d been able to eliminate.…….
Fast forward to February of last year…..
When we decided to move to Brazil, we sold almost everything. There where things that couldn’t be sold, children’s’ photos and artwork, books, a few favorite clothes – the stuff you just can’t seem to whittle down any further – and those went into a storage locker with the intent of retrieving them at a later date. But when we sold the house, we were fortunate to recoup the down payment we invested when we bought it. That, more or less, is the extent of our “nest egg.”
Fast forward even more to now….
So…. With this nest egg and a minimal retirement income – here’s the kind of life we can have:
We can buy enough land to provide our own clean water, grow most of our food and live peacefully in a lovely little house which we will design and have built with the “nest egg,” – NO MORTGAGE. We have no need of health insurance. Here, if we need Western medicine, we can go to a private doctor (sometimes without an appointment) for about $80, or we can wait and for much less (maybe free) go to the public hospital. But better yet, we can see one of many alternative health care providers who can treat our symptoms with natural plant medicines that have no counter indications. And these are not new age remedies, but ancient and sometimes shamanic wisdom traditions that have healed and cured people through the ages. (More on this topic later on) For less than $1000 a month we can live very comfortably – even paying rent on a very nice and large house. Once our house is built, we think we will actually be able to save money every month from our social security income. Though we lived well but somewhat modestly in the States, it cost us in the neighborhood of $7000 every month!
We don’t have to WORRY all the time about how we’re going to pay the bills. What if there’s no work???? We don’t have to rush off every morning to go to a job, that even if we love what we do, takes us away from each other for the whole day- bringing us home tired to begin the task of preparing a meal, washing the clothes, paying the bills and then maybe with the little time that’s left over, enjoying our loved ones or sitting down to a good film or a good book before collapsing exhausted into bed for a fitful sleep, only to wake up and begin again the same routine.
So granted, we are lucky enough to have gotten ourselves out of major debts and we have lived long enough to be old enough to collect a little social security retirement pension, but let me tell you about the young people who live here….
On Saturday mornings at the local farmers market, Uta who has a two year old baby, brings two trays of homemade pizza to sell by the slice for 1 real each, 3 if you get a bigger piece. She spends Friday afternoon making it. With that money she can buy the groceries and things that she needs for herself and her baby for the week. She lives in a really cool house with a Buddhist meditation “temple” which her friends are welcome to come to anytime to meditate together.
Barbara and her boyfriend have opened a room in the house they rent as a restaurant for dinner one night a week and lunch one afternoon. They have a great life….
Just two examples, but the point being that it really doesn’t take much more than a little ingenuity to create a way to earn enough money to support a really great lifestyle here or in many other places throughout South America. Rents cost about $400 a month for something REALLY nice, and even less for something simpler. In parts of Brazil, north of here, we hear the cost of living is considerably less.
I tell you this, not to show you what we have done, while you have not, but to invite you to consider that this example of the costs of living are available to anyone who chooses to change their life. This is possible. If you’ve never left the US for more than a travel vacation, it might not occur to you that a different kind of existence is possible; that you don’t have to be a slave to money so much. This is just an example of one place you could be and have a different kind of life; there are many others and we are happy to share our experiences in an effort to help you along the way to find your own piece of paradise, whether here or elsewhere. You CAN step out, you can disengage, if you want to…..
Think about it! When I was young and had young children, I missed out on being with them, getting to really know who they were. I was too busy! If I wasn’t working, I was cooking or shopping or paying bills or doing laundry or simply too tired to engage in actually being with them. Is it the same for you? Have you had to wait to get to know your grandchildren instead or maybe you’re still too busy? Or maybe like me, they live too far away!
I just feel totally ripped off about this. I feel like a big part of my life was stolen from me. I look at families here in Brazil and I am so envious of how close they are. Still together, 2 or 3 generations, all helping each other, completely in love and joy… In my greatest fantasy I imagine all five of our children here with us, with their own families, watching my grandchildren grow up, sitting together under the stars enjoying meals together…. But likely our current reality has them so busy they can’t even take the time to sit and read such a long letter and they strive daily to find the love that was missing when they so desperately needed it as children, but we as their parents were too busy to demonstrate.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
Well……..Enough of this for the moment. I shall go for a walk with Rocket to the river, before the afternoon rains return and see what else springs to mind that I can share with you. Until then, I carry you in my heart……
Adventures in Rocket’s land
Back…. So we didn’t exactly beat the afternoon rain, but it was mighty refreshing to be out in it for a little while.
Rocket is so much like Paul, it’s a little scary! He has to know EVERYTHING! When we walk he always wants to explore more, go further. But he so much wants to please and be with us that he always stops, looks back and if we’ve changed direction, he follows. Three gates were open today, areas he hasn’t be able to explore before now. Even a small crack in the gate was enough of an invitation today to go snoop around and see what was there. Funny! But he’s so fast, one look up to check in and he quickly zooms to catch up as he did when I got back to our gate and he zipped past me to be on the inside, not left behind. Once he came up to the gate from the outside when we were inside, the day he escaped from his babysitter to come home to find us where we were. That day was an experiment to see how he’d do, to be left in the care of someone else. He stood patiently and expectedly, waiting to be noticed so he could return to his “pack.”
Maybe you were wondering about Paul and I have neglected to tell you that he is completely recovered from his treatment. Wow! That was scary, but the end result, though not worth it in his words, is fantastically clear, beautiful skin – like a baby! No sign of any pre-cancers that were lurking below the surface waiting to show up next year or the year after. The stuff seems to have worked. But yikes, it was too hard and too painful and we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. When our friends came by and saw how ravaged his face was, like a 3rd degree burn, one said, “With all the natural plant medicines here, why would you use a pharmaceutical?” Well in our defense we thought the Brazilian products would be less toxic.
So maybe this is a good time to say a little more about Western medicine and the pharmaceutical companies and health care in general. What a lousy system! And boy were we trapped in it. Our medical bills were outrageous. All that money to the health insurance companies and they still didn’t pay for anything like a test ($1000- no matter what the test was looking for.) Western doctors prescribe medications. Medications are manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and I feel safe to say that their business model would be ruined if everyone got healthy from their products. Health is not their business – I am sure they never said it was. Down here it has been told to me by more than one person that they hesitate to buy anything from a pharmaceutical company because all manufactured medications come with a thing called counter – indications. This is a list, and sometimes quite a lengthy list, of systems that could be or will be negatively affected while this medication is attempting to cure what is wrong. Did you know that to patent a pharmaceutical it must be proven to have a positive effect in only 5% of the test cases. Not cure 5%, but simply have a positive effect; the other 95% can have no effect or even a counter effect (thus the counter indications). The counter – indications simply need to be listed. (In food products like aspartame, these ill affects do not even need to be listed see… http://www.youtube.com/
Although they do have drug stores in Brazil and you can get the standard manufactured medications, many prefer to use remedies that have been made up by locals who grow the plants and produce the products with care for the “personality” of each active ingredient. At this point we feel comfortable that for most illnesses, the locals have a cure and for major catastrophes medical help (even Western medical help) can be obtained that will be within our budget.
But back to Paul…
So he is back at ‘work’ (wish I had a better term) writing the article he began last month. He, as he likes to remind me, writes totally differently than I do. He thinks about what it is he is trying to say; he knows before he starts what the point is and how he will take his reader there from start to finish. Much of the time, his process of creation happens before he even begins to put words down on paper (or more accurately, on the computer screen.) AND there is the factor of new information constantly streaming in, changing the direction of the outcome!
He is truly an artist. Not content with mere “wall decorations” everything he creates, in his mind, must have substance and significance. We learned something recently. I can’t recall its source. Some people’s life purpose affects its outcome in small ways or in the present time frame, in the immediate now. Other people’s life course is to affect a greater range of outcome and happens over a long period of time – maybe not in their lifetime. We think his path might be this latter course. Another new piece of an ever unfolding puzzle which we have just recently uncovered, is that for some people, they can only muster the energy and life force to forward something really big and momentous. Paul thinks this is true for himself. He just doesn’t have it in him to engage unless it seems really worthwhile on a grand scale. We are so different, he and I. If I can save one small fish, I am happy with the endeavor.
As you know by now I’m sure, my writing style is completely different. Though I sometimes start with a point or two I want to explore, often I just sit with a blank mind and start writing whatever occurs to me in the moment. Then, the thoughts flood in, often too many at one time. He calls it stream of consciousness writing…. As if it’s a bad thing! But I always review with him what I write before I send it to Charlie to be posted and he encourages me and thinks I’m doing a good thing – that I end up redeeming myself in the end, even when I write about really boring topics. Occasionally he points out my redundancies or reminds me of small things I’ve missed. And he doesn’t seem to mind when I talk about him, which totally shocks me – mister very private person!
So I am pleased, his life force has returned after that unexpected month long ordeal. I think we both learned a big lesson about what to trust without question…..
Well, dear friends and adored ones, I think it’s best to bring this newsletter to a close. We are so honored to be a part of this grand awakening which is taking place on the planet now. Thank you for sharing in our experience.
With hearts full of love….
Mindy and Paul