Two for one this time.

School is in. Mandatory vaccinations are up. A whistleblower comes clean regarding the Center for Disease Control cover up and fraud regarding documented statistical correlations linking vaccines to autism. Please see the two important videos.

And

My adventures with Carly Elizabeth, now six weeks old.

The Buddha spoke of emptiness. Krishnamurti called it silence. Both are referring to a heart and mind unfettered by the noise generated by words, symbols and social conditioning. Such is the body, heart and mind of Carly Elizabeth, now six weeks old.

One of the great challenges for we adulterated-adults is to enter into and become as little children. To relate to children or, for that matter, any living thing, we must silently attune to their state of being. Instead, most often, we expect them to conform to who and what we are. That’s crazy, impossible, nuts! Relating means shared meaning. To share in the meaning of Carly’s experience I must become, at least empathicaly, who she is and act from that. Then and only then will the other trust and respect the relationship.

Holding, carrying or just being with Carly Elizabeth dampens the activity of my neocortex. Again, referring to Krishnamurti, he noted that talking and thinking dulls perceptions and it certainly does. Distinguished physicist David Bohm referred to this activity as electrochemical smog.

As the intellectual-verbal habits of mind slow down and even end, other sense-perceptions grow more present and intense. The light appears brighter. The deafening roar of the motorcycle and smell of diesel exhaust take center stage. These are always there but we don’t notice them. When they intrude we talk to ourselves in our heads louder or thumb faster on our stupid-phones.

How can we lead our children into dominion over themselves and their world without the trust and respect share meaning implies? We can punish and reward, bribe and explain, twist behavior to meet our expectations, but all these deny who the flowering child is this moment. How can they trust someone that doesn’t see and respect who they are?

Play researcher O. Fred Donaldson, who has traveled the world playing with wild animals and wild children, that is, unadulterated animals and children, described how we crazy-humans, cut off from the actual, natural world, lost in our virtual realities, appear to these authentic creatures. Mad as hatters, therefore unpredictable, not to be trusted, feared, something to hide from or threaten away.

As each age and stage of development unfolds, it is our gift and great challenge to become as our children are and relate accordingly. Carly at six weeks is nothing at all like the Carly of eighteen months will be. This demands a moment by moment attunement, a re-calibration of my sensory, emotional and intellectual state, to attune to hers. And this implies a fundamental transformation of identity that moment. I can’t be playing and identify with some cultural role and at the same moment be present and attuned to who and what Carly Elizabeth is – right now. Not doing so means that I am not paying attention, not really relating, not earning and renewing her trust and respect, upon which our entire life together will rest.

Some people meditate, practice mindfulness, chant or any number of other so called spiritual practices. On close examination all these have a common root and goal; to shut up, to extinguish and clear away the self-generated electrochemical smog and to wake up to all the sights, sounds, colors and so much more this miracle has to offer. Carly helps me remember who and what I really am.

Michael Mendizza