A week ago today it was Halloween....again and I was reminded as I basked in summer like weather in my new home of one of the reasons I moved to the sunshine and warmth of the Desert.  It seems the most beautiful and darling Elsa, she of frozen and Blue Angel fame lasted about thirty minutes trick or treating on a cold fall night in the "Show Me" state of Missouri next to the Land of Oz from which I departed a few months ago.  It seems the mid-30's was just cold enough that she uttered the words "Please Take Me Home" and "Show Me" the door to my home so I can get warm....and eat some chocolate!!  Okay, how do I know this you ask if I'm in Arizona and she is in Missouri?  Because thanks to a Power greater than myself I chose not to go to a movie, but instead stayed Home and was blessed to see the smiling face of Elsa via "Facetime" sitting very comfortably on her daddy's lap, nice and warm with a smiling face covered in chocolate!!  For me, I was grateful to be Home, and blessed to hear one of my favorite words - "Papa"!!  This morning the thought struck me how if I had not been "home" I might have missed her call, then I realized in today's world with our "enlightened" technology I could have been almost anywhere in the world and not missed "Elsa's" smiling chocolate face from her home all snuggled up nice and warm.  The thought also struck me that after I had spent some time with the people who have what I want and still do, and in the embryo stages of feeling The Power of Surrender being simply images and a few words of "finding God alive in everyday life" began to evolve to a book and this site,  how despite its impersonal nature the world we live in can bring "home" to us at the touch of a screen.  That perhaps we are evolving in a positive direction afterall, in that our ability for instantaneous images and communication is similar too, yet billions of light years away, from our true Home.  Where our souls go when our bodies die, where there is Light Beyond the Light, where we willingly and gratefully Surrender to the Power beyond our wildest dreams.  Where I "Remember" all to well and for which is my purpose of being here to write and share with you if you "choose" to listen we are always Home and Home is always with us and we are Welcome when we are open and willing and it is right outside our door.  I only say this because I have "been there" and for sure when it is time to go Home again - I won't mind!  And although in the beginning of my learning and coming to understand the Power of Surrender and becoming willing to practice - without perfection - these principles in all of my affairs and carry it to others, I was not prepared to have all that I needed until some time passed after my death and I had a more fuller appreciation and understanding of the gift of gratitude no matter the situation.  With this gift comes a heightened awareness of the world around me, my world, as I make it.  The awareness is aided by my senses and I am grateful today for being able to hear and understanding that not only is "Home" in my soul, if I listen I can also hear messages clearly through a conscious contact of the God of my understanding.  What I didn't understand that I do now, is that this ability was always present but got lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and although this Power was working it was missed and could not be seen....which gets me to thinking....which I often do.

In my new home my TV is connected to the internet and I can stream from either my PC or my phone via wifi - more invisible yet very real and alive technology.  So, I am rekindling my love for music by listening to Pandora either just relaxing and "being" or as I do other "stuf" around the house.  The other day as I was doing so, I think it was "stuff", an old friend came on over my surround sound and he was asking for someone to take him home.  It was Phil Collins and it is not only appreciation for his music and lyrics for which I consider him a friend, it is also what he got me to thinking about.  As you may or may not know I have five kids, and when they were growing up there was always a lot of hustle and bustle and sometimes I chose on purpose NOT to hear what was deafening around me.  A frequent flyer and example of this mode was in the early 80's, 1984 to be exact and perhaps the beginning of George Orwell's embryo of Big Brother and a precurser to "Facetime".  I had just bought my first new, never been used, hot off the showroom floor family vehicle.  It was a Toyota Van, their first van, and looked like it came from the Moon.  My smile was beaming like the man in the moon because it was the first time we had a vehicle in which every one had their own individual seat.  Ahh....finally peace!!  It worked for a while, kind of, as pecking order was quickly established.  Mom and dad upfront, three oldest in the middle, and of course the two youngest in the "way back" anchored by none other than "Elsa's" beautiful mom who Elsa strongly resembles and is the same age as mom was then.  Unfortunately for Elsa's mom, her voice was often drowned out and seldom heard unless of course a sis or a bro was being a pain in the way back.  So for my personal sanity, and in order to maintain CONTROL, I manned the radio and/or this new 1984 technology....cassette tapes!!  Unfortunately the peace nor the quiet lasted long and there was a lot of personalities wanting to force their priniciples and taste in music on everyone else.  My oldest son and daugher were teens, one into love songs and the other into heavy metal fighting for the right to party while burning down the house, the middle son influenced his younger pre-adolescent brother and his "cup of tea" was rap and hip-hop which was my least favorite drink.  Today looking back, I am grateful that in those days "rap" was primarily confined to MC Hammer and I had control of the music and the "Power" to say - "Can't Touch This"!!  However I did not have the power to silence the demands for each being able to listen to their favorites and I hear about it.  Loud and clear!!  And it got louder as each of them demanded what they wanted while simultaneously shouting down and exclaiming their distaste for the others music.  And in hindsight although I never asked, I'm sure Elsa's mom was thinking to herself, "Please take me Home", these people are crazy!!  For me, being the then, but not so much now, people pleaser that I was I would eagerly search and change looking for just the right mix and always destined to fail until I met with Destiny.  Destiny's name was Phil Collins.  It was like magic.  No matter how insane it was, how loud, how dysfunctional, how dis-satisfied everyone in the van felt, once I put on Phil Collins it was instant peace, almost serenity.  It was like George Orwell was right there in 1984 with us, and in total contral without any evil.  This is no exaggeration at all, if you have this problem try it, Phil works!!  Many days and evenings he "took us home" and no one minded....which gets me to thinking which I often do.

When I heard on my surround sound this week Phil Collins and his singing "Take Me Home" and how haunting and eerily familiar the lyrics are to expressing how I used to feel, I was reminded of another time I listened to this song, "heard" a Power greater than myself with one other human being.  It was a cool night in the fall, in California, and I and a friend had just emerged from our two hour group therapy session for Adult Children of Alcoholics.  It was my supplement to my recovery that I needed in addition to Al-Anon.  As we walked out to our cars and were talking she got into hers and turned on the ignition.  It was Phil, and he was asking for someone to "Take Me Home".  For my friend, she had a particularly rough session, recounting and feeling the pain of many instances of all kinds of abuse and abandonmet growing up in an alcholic home for which we were attempting to recover.  She sat in her car, I stood at her door and we listened to the lyrics.  I said to her this is an ACOA song (Adult Child of Alcoholics), it caputures what it's like, how it feels in a way that is difficult to describe.  She nodded in agreement.  Some of the lyrics...."you can turn off my feelings like you're turning off a light"...."I've been a prisoner all my life"....'they don't think that I listen, but I know who they are"...."theres a fire, right outside my door"....these were the parts we identified with that were painful and we were working to get to the point of being able to say "I don't mind" and learning how to take that look of worry off of our face. Most of all because we could not remember we were trying to find our way home.  We didn't now how exactly, nor where home was or what it meant, but we could feel it.  My friend still lives in California, I'm pretty sure today she feels much more at home, does not mind what you do so much, and hopefully that look of worry is seldom on her face like it was that night.  Ordinary people who at times have experienced extraordinary and unnecesary events yet somehow learning through gratitude that "home" is not always where we live, not always where we have been, but always at hand, always available, and always when we seek it, in our soul.  Which gets me to thinking which I often do....

It gets me to thinking that it wasn't George Orwell and Big Brother in our van that brought peace and quiet through Phil Collins music and lyrics, his gift from a Power greater than himself that he shares that obviously comes from his Soul.  For his music is universal, transcending love songs, heavy metal, rap and hip-hop with universal appeal just like the God of my understanding.  Phil is gifted and enlightened and many times the Light that was and is showN upon him found its way into our van and we were all touched.  I have no idea what perhaps life he lived, but in the video that follows what I see, hear, and feel is indeed an ordinary man who has accepted that there may be fires outside his door, or someone turning off his feelings like their turning off a light that he not only no longer minds, he is also grateful that no matter where he may go either in reality or in his imagination he feels at Home....and so do I and the look of worry is gone from my face....most of the time and wherever I go I am always Home as Home is in my soul and this is why I have a Welcome Home page....glad you're Home! As for the "And I don't remember part", we are not supposed to, it is not part of the plan, but will be revealed when we do get Home - don't worry!! Oh yeah, if you watch the video and pay close attention to the lyrics and they "hit home", just like a redneck you might be an ACOA too, if you already know you are, you will understand exactly what I am writing about as perhaps few others can....and either way take that look of worry off your face because just think how far we have come to get closer to Home, with just a "touch" I saw Elsa and her chocolate face in real time!  It is amazing, now if there was just an app in which I could actually eat the chocolate and hold it in my hand....WOW!!....but I am not going to worry about it, as I'm pretty sure I will be to my final HOME again before this is possible....but Home, well it's awesome!  So...just for today....take a few minutes and walk around a bit with Phil as he gets in touch with his soul and makes his way Home, you see it is "carry out" and home is wherever he is and he is so peaceful and serene he "doesn't mind" that she thought he was ....at the pub - now isn't that ironic!!  Turn the page and perhaps for a while Surrender to the Power, let go and  let God "Take Me Home