I'm still here

Things have been going well.

I am strongly considering leaving Boulder. It's not mellow and groovy like Oregon. But I've learned a lot here - mostly
how to be self-sufficient and live without being shackled into a job. I'm thinking of setting up in Fort Collins, which is more rural and more "real" than Boulder or Denver.

It's been 6 months since my surgery. MY voice has improved markedly. I still can't talk for hours on end, but I am doing so much better. The scar is healing nicely and it's hard to see.

Miss you guys on Tribe! What's happening with you / your life?

Surgery Update: Passed through Fear into the Light

Surgery happened.

It was intense.The doctor told me all the worst possible outcomes to cover their ass just in case. "You could die.. your voice could be worse... there's no telling what could happen"- i started shaking heavily and wondering if i should sign on the dotted line in a thin gown with IVs already in me. It was really negative and worst case. It busted all the confidence I walked in there with.

I passed through some heavy gates of fear... severity... mercy.. doubt... weakness... vanity.... regret... self-juddgement... living in the past... blaming the guy for running me over.. blaming the first doctor for not knowhting what is wrong...and then in acceptance to be alive and to allow my creative energy to express itself however it needed to.

I just accepted that I was alive and that I could walk and type and think and be creative.. and my looks and my voice would have to be however they were supposed to be for me in this lifetime. IT wasn't important to the spiritual and professional work I am here to do.

afterwards the Doctor was incredibly astonished at how badly my voice box was broken... said it was the worst he'd ever seen.. was astonished at how it didn't kill me on the scene. "How did you survive this? - it's a miracle. There's a 95% chance you should be dead" he mentioned that about 8 times with geniuine awe. this was not a textbook case. he's writing it up for a medical journal if I give him permission.

The night agter surgery I was connected to all kinds of machines. Strange and friendly nurses and people popped in and ran checks. A very elderly Jewish man was in the room next to mine shouting "Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy!" for hours and hours on end. I put in headphones to tune it out... feeling compassion that he must be more scared or flipped out than I was. I watched E!'s "Beautiful Sexy Nightspots in Las Vegas" which was about 5,000,000 miles from how I felt... than the Cosby Show (which was very wholesome, positive and well-done) - and some bizzareo late night informercials and zombie movies.

sitting in a hotel in denver now... dreaming on Vicodin and listening to Ambient music ( Adham Shaikh.)..

the intense dicomfort has passed.

now I am supposed to move as little as possible for 2 weeks... not go outside... not lift anything,,,,

to let everything set as well as possible.

I was broken. And put back together. NOW IS THE TIME FOR HEALING.

Help me picture a clear bright voice... teaching classes, doing business, singing, praying... caring and communicating.


thank you!

So might it BE!

Voice Box Fractured - Going in to Surgery!

So, it turns out, my voice box wasn't bruised like the local doctor told me it was. I was totally misdiagnosed. Reiki and slippery elm tea weren't strong enough to help me. There was a catastrophic condition.

I went to an expert throat specialist last week and he put his fingers on my Adam's apple and said "Oh no! I think there's a problem."

He sent me to get CT scans in downtown Denver and called me into his office with bad news: "Your larynx (voice box) is fractured. Split open. You're actually really lucky because if it just went a few millimeters more, closer to your airway, you would have probably died before they could have helped you. The only way to fix this is surgery. How about next Friday?"

I quietly freaked out and after several hours, I decided to take the path of modern technology. (Now I can communicate, but it sounds like I have bad laryngitis - and without surgery it won't improve.)

In spite of the fact that it costs more than a new hybrid car, and my insurance pays for a big chunk but not all of it. And it will leave a scar on the front of my neck.

Still, my ability to communicate clearly is very precious and critical to my mission.

I know that I will get my voice back perfectly. And when I can talk clearly, I can work well and have a huge part of my power and magic back.

I am asking for your well wishes, thoughts and prayers. The healing is the most important part of this operation procedure... how the body gels back together.

Visualize me HEALING PERFECTLY communicating as clearly as bell and speaking in front of large rooms, conferences... speaking words of illumination, helpfulness and kindness to everyone I meet.

Thank you and LOVE YOU guys!

My Injury and Healing Process

On the first week of March, I got run over at high speed by a reckless snowboarder who was going too fast to stop. Somehow in the tanglement, I was struck hard in the neck area... and I found myself unable to speak.

This has continued for the past 7 weeks, due to a bruised and swollen larnyx. It's been really isolating to not speak to anyone for almost two months, but it has sparked a kind of spiritual awakening. I haven't done any real magickal work since 2003 and I have started to take it up again.

I went to see the doctor today and he said it was taking an awful long to heal, but he hopes it will clear up within another month.

I really, really trust this will be so... because I am self-employed and I need to be able to speak to do new business as I have things set up now.

I haven't been on Tribe as much.... I have been spending a lot of time on Twitter:

twitter.com/brettborders

and also I have been blogging a lot at my new blog, Social Media Rockstar:

socialmediarockstar.com

Recently it has been really taking off, and I am glad because I have put so much work and love into it. Please meet me over there and connect!

And picture me being able to speak clearly again, soon, please. Take a moment and visualize it if you can / care to.

Much love and would love to hear what has been going on with you... please leave comments below!

-Brett

Snowboarding Ecstasy

Some of you may remember a couple years back when I blogged about going snowboarding for the first time in Mt. Ashland, Oregon - and I had a brutal experience?

Well, I've come a long way since then....

I have recently acquired a Subaru 4WD station wagon and a snowboard here in Boulder... and I have got snowboarding dialed down... carving up snow like a Jack-o-lantern and launching big, fat airs...

It is easily the funnest thing I have EVER done. I need it so badly, as I spend a lot of time online (70 hours a week+) - and it fills my lungs full of fresh crisp air and my blood full of adrenaline... it's SO REFRESHING! Being self-employed, I can see there is a clear and present danger of me skipping work and having "Snow Days" ( it's already happened a couple of times so far- but I think it's all for the best as long as it's occasional....)


It was quite a long journey to get to this point .. that I could literally afford the autonomy and time to be able to do it... metaphorically, it feels like I have climbed a 14,000 foot peak w/ a 100lb. pack.. barefoot & no jacket... to get here.


I am graduating from our local little mountain and going to Aspen on Wednesday.... a HUGE mountain and big, fluffy beautiful power snow...

and then in February I am going to Florida for a month to go surfing... visit my folks... and do a little SEO + blogging work off broadband internet... I can't wait to see my old school friends, take some long bike rides through enless palm trees and hopefully catch some nices waves...


(there's this one glorious loonnnng wave off a place called Krusler Park ... that breaks only when the conditions are right... that last time it happened I was there with my high-school friend, half-drunk.. and didn't own a board of my own.... THIS TIME I'm gonna get it! )


GRATEFUL TO GOD! LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO ALL MY FRIENDS ON THEIR OWN RIDES THROUGH LIFE!

Peace in the Middle East: A Simple Solution

From a speech by the lead rabbi of the UK - www.bluetruth.net/2009/01/s...ks-in.html
----

"We are gathered today, not in triumph but in tears.
Nothing that has happened in Gaza needed to happen.
All it took to avoid all the suffering
was for Hamas to end firing rockets on innocent Israeli civilians.
That's all.
And let a voice go out today from here in Trafalgar Square,
And from other gatherings today in Manchester, Paris and Washington -
as it has gone out from Israel since the day it was born, 60 years ago:
We want peace
Israel wants peace.
We who love Israel want peace.
No to terror -- yes to peace
Let there be an end to bloodshed and hate.
Let there be peace.
We say to those who criticise Israel:
You want Palestinian children to grow up with hope.
So do we
You want Palestinians to be able to live in dignity.
So do we
You want Palestinian parents to have work, income, and a life for their families.
So do we
When a great British Zionist, the late Dr David Baum,
President of the Royal College of Paediatrics,
a man who lived in Bristol but asked to be buried, as he was, in Israel, in Rosh Pinah, sought to give expression to his hopes for Israel,
he created a state-of-the-art child care facility.
Where? In Gaza.
He died on a sponsored cycle ride raising money
for paediatric facilities in Gaza.
When one of the finest young men of our community, Yoni Jesner, was killed in a suicide attack on Tel Aviv bus, his family donated his organs to save life, one of whom was a seven-year-old Palestinian girl
Yasmin Abu Ramila
who had been waiting two years for a transplant.
We care about the Palestinian future.
We care for Palestinian children.
We care about life.
And that is why we say to Hamas, who for years, day after day, have been endangering the lives of innocent people:
Stop killing the Palestinian future.
In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza.
It said to the people of Gaza: the land is yours.
The factories, the farms, the buildings our people built are yours.
The aid you seek in building an economy is yours.
That is when terror should have stopped.
Instead that is when the current wave of terror began.
The living nightmare for the people of Sderot and Ashdod and Ashkelon.
A ceaseless rain of rockets injuring and killing young and old,
the vulnerable, the innocent, who wanted nothing except peace.
There are young children in Sderot who have only known a life of living in bomb shelters.
Who can live like that?
When Jews built the land and state of Israel
The land where our ancestors lived for 4000 years,
They didn't want to fight with their neighbours.
They didn't want to spend a lifetime fighting war and fearing terror.
All they wanted to do was live.
And so we ask Hamas, and Hizbollah, and the countries that give them aid and arms,
Why do you want Israel to die?
Stop wanting Israel to die.
Start wanting your children to live.
There is one question that cries out for an answer.
Why, Hamas, do you hold in such contempt not just Israeli lives but Palestinian lives.
Why do you fire rockets from schools, store arms in hospitals, surround yourself with human shields?
Why have you consistently acted so as to maximise the death of innocent Palestinians?
In the words of Colonel Richard Kemp, reported in today's Sunday Times:
Senior military adviser to the British cabinet,
'Hamas deploys suicide attackers including women and children,
And rigs up schools and houses with booby trap explosives.
Virtually every aspect of its operations is illegal under international humanitarian law.
The Palestinian future will begin
The minute Hamas stops firing rockets on innocent Israelis.
The minute they try to stop killing the people whom they see as enemies but who want to live as friends.
The minute they stop endangering the Palestinian people by pursuing a policy that is blighting the Palestinian future.
Just say three words:
Yes to peace.
And a day will come when Israelis and Palestinians
Jews Muslims and Christians
The people of Sderot and the people of Gaza
Will live together in peace
No longer fighting one another
But helping one another to live in freedom and dignity.
That day will come.
It could be a hundred years away
Or it could be today.
It's up to Hamas and the countries that give it arms.
And for the sake of Palestinian children, and Israeli children,
Let it be today.
But in the meanwhile we say,
Beloved G-d
The G-d we worship
The G-d of life who told us to sanctify life
Al Rahman, the G-d of compassion
The G-d of Avraham, Ibrahim, father of our several faiths
Show us the way to live your way.
The way of Salaam,
The way of Shalom.
The way of Peace. "

What You Should Know About the Israel - Hamas Conflict

I strongly support peace, democracy and higher consciousness... and I despise war, hardcore religious fundamentalism and terrorism.

I also prefer psychedelic culture, gender equality and freedom of religion... over Islamist government mandates and dictators.

That is why I support Israel's right to exist as the only western-style democracy in the Middle East... and to defend itself against Jihadi
terrorists.

What Israel is doing now is what ANY nation would do. The USA invaded Iraq... because of a flimsy (non-existent) connection to a single terrorist attack... and our occupation resulted in the death of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. I am not defending this, but rather, saying that what Israel is doing to protect itself is miniscule compared to what the USA does on a routine basis. And much more understandable - as Israel has been the victim of several thousand terrorist attacks and Hamas is a terrorist organization whose charter and sole focus is to destroy Israel and kill as many citizens as possible.

There's a lot of propaganda flying around and harsh criticism of Israel (much of it tinged with anti-semitism - conscious or unconscious) but I just want to present another side to the story.

An article I found online....

If you disagree with this article, please state the facts you disagree with and and not assumptions / emotions / projections.

WITH PRAYERS FOR PEACE AND HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS!

-Brett

-----------------------------------------------------


WE'VE ALL BEEN HAD!

Did you know that there was never any country called Palestine? Did you know that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people?

The ideas that the West Bank and Gaza are occupied Palestinian land, and that the Palestinian people are fighting for their land, have been accepted by most of the governments of the world and by most of the media in the world. But if you read on, you will see that these two claims are the biggest lies ever deliberately perpetrated on humanity.

Check out any map of the Middle East and see for yourself. www.masada2000.org/sahara.JPG You will find Palestine listed as a region as it always has been, but definitely not a country. We can locate the Mojave Desert on the map, but we still do not recognize it as our 51st state, let alone a country. Similarly, the region of Siberia is a region not a state. Or the Sahara is a region not a state, etc. Neither is Palestine a state. It never was a country, just a region.

Importantly, the Jews did not displace anyone, because no one permanently resided there. It was a land inhabited by nomadic, Bedouin tribes. The whole region was nothing but deserts and swamps. Only about 120,000 Arabs resided in an area that covered the territories, the state of Israel and Jordan. When Mark Twain visited the area, he wrote he found nothing but a wasteland.

Map of Israel (West Bank and Gaza included)During the 19 years that the territories, including Jerusalem and Gaza, were occupied by the kingdoms of Jordan and Egypt, (refer to masada2000.org/historical.html no one talked about a Palestinian state, not the Arab countries, not the United Nations. Nobody asked Jordan or Egypt to abdicate their ownership and give it to the Palestinians. Not even the Palestinians themselves said anything about a Palestinian state or a Palestinian people, because nobody heard of a Palestinian people. It never existed.

The fact simply is that there are no Palestinians. These people are Arabs like all other Arabs, and they happen to live in a region called Palestine. They are not a separate people.

What makes a separate people? Religion, language, culture, garb, cuisine, etc. The Arabs in Palestine speak the same language, practice the same religion, have the same culture, etc., as all the other Arabs. The few minor differences that exist between them are like the minor differences that exist between the American Northerners and Southerners, Easterners and Westerners... but they are still all Americans. People in the south of France are quite different from the people in the north, but they are still all French. These inconsequential differences do not make a people.

The Arabs living in Syria or Jordan, etc., are also the same Arabs, but they are each a separate nation because they each have a separate country. The so-called Palestinians want a separate country because they claim to be a separate nation. They are not. They were never a separate people before the new state of Israel. How did they become one now?

Because of these lies, the so-called "Palestinians" feel justified in sending suicide bombers to kill women, children, babies, old men, old women and noncombatant citizens. Because of these lies, the United Nations and the media of the world are condemning Israel who is acting less harshly than any other country would act in retaliation for such heinous attacks. What is the United States doing in Afghanistan, a totally foreign country? Killing Afghanis. Why? Because they attacked us on Sept. 11. I understand this. But why do they not understand that that is exactly what Israel is doing, only on a much smaller scale?

Ask yourself this: Should the use of terror ever be rewarded? When is the use of terrorism justified as a military tactic? As a political tactic? As an economic tactic? What implications does this hold for future conflicts?

Let us examine the truths here:

Arab "Palestinian?" with Flag of "Palestine?"1) There never was a Palestinian state or a Palestinian nation. There are no Palestinian people, per se. Rather, these are Arabs living in a region that historically has been called many things, including "Palestine."

2) Israel did not go to war against a Palestinian state and occupy its land. Rather, Israel was attacked by six Arab countries at once. She defended herself, defeated her attackers, and won the so-called territories, not from the Palestinians, but from Jordan and Egypt.

3) Jerusalem was never the capital of any state but Israel. It was certainly never the capital of a country that never existed. Why should the Palestinians get any part of it? Because they want it? Because they have terrorists?

4) Jerusalem, under the current Israeli control, is a free and open city. Israel, as a democracy, guarantees freedom of religion within its borders. Contrast this fact with areas that have come under Palestinian occupation. What percentage of Christians have left in recent years because they cannot stand the harassment and persecution?

5) Most Arabs living in Palestine today are not indigenous to the region. It was not until after the Jews had changed deserts and swamps into a productive and thriving land that the Arabs started migrating there. Arafat himself was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Did you know that?

The belief that giving the Palestinians a state will bring peace is a delusion. The truth is that they want it all. The short-term goal is a state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza. The long-term goal is a state which includes all of "historical Palestine," including Jordan.

How do I know this?

The late Faisal Husseini, Arafat's Jerusalem representative, a man who was cultured, sophisticated and considered the most moderate of all the Palestinians, shortly before his death on May 31, 2001, expressed his true feelings in an interview with the popular Egyptian newspaper el Arav. Husseini said: "We must distinguish the strategies and long-term goals from the political-phased goals which we are compelled to accept due to international pressures." But the "ultimate goal is the liberation of all of historical Palestine." Explicitly he said: "Oslo has to be viewed as a Trojan Horse."

He even added and clarified that it is the obligation of all the Palestinian forces and factions to see the Oslo Accords as "temporary" steps, as "gradual" goals, because in this way, "We are setting an ambush for the Israelis and cheating them." He also differentiated between "strategic," long-term, "higher" goals, and "political" short-term goals dependent on "the current international establishment, balance of power" etc.

All of historical Palestine! Does not this include all of Israel and all of Jordan?

What does this say to you?

Unless the Arabs recognize and accept these truths, even if they are given a state of their own, and no matter how many agreements and treaties they sign, they will always feel wronged, cheated, and forced into giving up what they now claim is theirs. They will continue to plot and look for an opportunity to destroy Israel in order to take back what they claim is theirs, especially the younger generation that has been brainwashed to hate the occupying enemy. Whether there is a Palestinian state or not, there will be no peace.

Only a massive and ongoing re-education of the Arab people to these truths will enable meaningful negotiations to begin, followed by a lasting peace between Arabs and Jews. It is therefore critical that everyone who has an audience, whether in print or other media, use the forum they have available to repeat these truths again and again until they reach the consciousness of those waging war in the Middle East.

www.masada2000.org/been-had.html