This picture was taken in a moment of being present earlier this week.
The NM sky seen through the sunroof in my car. I paused to embrace
the present before heading to work. Find more articles from Dr. Fleg's blog series, Writing to Heal, by clicking here. Find Dr. Fleg's book, Writing to Heal by clicking here.
From noted scholar Eliseo “Cheo” Torres PhD comes The Three Great Ones: Los Tres Grandes. This bilingual edition was edited by Timothy Sawyer Jr., translated by Mario Esteban del Ángel Guevara with Illustrations by Dave Briggs.
Eliseo “Cheo’ Torres PhD
Retired as a Vice President of Student Affairs from the University of New Mexico, Cheo is now a part-time faculty teaching traditional medicine, Curanderismo courses year-round. Cheo regularly lectures and offers a 2-week summer class and 2 online courses on the history, herbal remedies, and rituals of Curanderismo to audiences ranging from scholars and students to people hoping to become knowledgeable about alternative and traditional medicine, including lay people and medical professionals alike.
Three Great Healers
The three healers lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s and were legends while they were alive, healing peoples’ minds, bodies and spirits. I have been impressed with their popularity, which I think compares to that of modern rock stars. Everywhere they went, they attracted hundreds of followers. All three were noble, sincere and humble, and they never charged a fee for their services. The three were even considered folk saints while they were still alive. (A folk saint is not a recognized church saint but a saint of the people. To be considered a saint while still alive is very unusual).
Although the three great ones died a long time ago, the stories in the book are told as if they are still living today – which, in a sense, they are, since they are still greatly admired and talked about by people who remember their history and the great example that they set as healers and as people. In the first story, you will meet Don Pedrito Jaramillo, who will teach a young man how to be happier and healthier; in the second, you will meet Teresita, and learn the story of how she became a healer; and in the third, you will meet El Niño Fidencio, who will teach a family how to overcome their troubles by being happy and positive. – Excerpt from the Preface of the book.
Presale Purchase
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Time is the great equalizer. Time is both fixed and fluid. Broken Man, a master of flowing with time, realizes it’s time to re-make himself and starts the clock ticking on the realization of a new reality. At that very moment, a new character in Rev Le Rev’s mind appears. Is this friend or foe? What magic has been unleashed here?
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Our story begins with a look back at Broken Man, a homeless, penniless artist who made a big splash on the shores of the Rio Grande, but failed to make his way to El Tiempo Grande – The Big Time, over 25 years of auteur art making. Will Broken Man, Rev’s past self, find the courage to self heal and rise up to realize his dream? :: Watch Episode 1 :: / :: Watch Episode 3 ::
We hope you enjoy this strange story of self, as it unfolds both in real life and inside the mind of an artist with an impossible dream. :: Find out more about Rev Le Rev ::
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In Becoming Future Man, real life artist, Rev Le Rev, sets out to remake himself, and the audience gets a peek inside his psychedelic brain, where odd alternate versions of himself either hinder or help him find The Way. This is a story of self honesty and digging deep to get at the truth of self, both the self as it is, and the self as one imagines it to become. :: Find out more about Rev Le Rev :: :: Watch Episode 2 ::
This project is the outcome of a challenge to create a series of videos in 45 days, within the parameters of making each episode, start to finish in a 24 hour period, and with the entire series telling a single unified story. The only thing done in advance of beginning this challenge was the creation of a list of 30 prompts to work from. The entire storyline was created on the fly, all of the characters, plot, and other elements forming out of the process itself. The first main character to appear, Broken Man, was actually recognized as a character to develop, after Episode 2 was already shot and edited. That discovery was the seed that set the entire story into motion.
Behind the scenes at Becoming Future Man
We hope you enjoy this strange story of self, as it unfolds both in real life and inside the mind of an artist with an impossible dream.
Join Our Community
Please help support Independent Media by subscribing below. This is a free subscription which will entitle you to free giveaways, books information, book previews, merchandise giveaways, event news, book signing info and more! Thank you. Community Publishing is from the community for the Community!
In a previous article, I briefly addressed what I call “The Tyranny Of The Mind”, that internal voice filled with doubts and insecurities that constantly threatens to take away one’s true power. My main point is that true power does not rest in the hands of those to whom power is typically attributed. No doubt the wielders of power in the world have the ability to exert a profound impact on the lives of many, to take away freedoms, even to end lives. But the power that I am speaking of is a quality of being that no amount of force or abuse of so-called power, can touch or take away.
Surviving Atrocity
It is an internal source of strength that stands solid, no matter the circumstances. It is the kind of strength exhibited by such individuals as Victor Frankl, a survivor of the Holocaust and the author of /Man’s Search For Meaning./ He tells of his experience of having everything taken away and being imprisoned in the concentration camps, but one thing remained – “the last of the human freedoms – to chose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.” He went on to say, “man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.”
Untapped Power
It is easy, in times like these, to see the threatening external forces of tyranny out there, preparing to come and snatch away our freedoms. What is much more difficult to see are the internal forces of tyranny that are, day in and day out, mounting their assault on our own true inner power. Those forces take on many forms, often times showing up in very subtle ways that fool us into believing the “propaganda” of our own disempowerment, of our victimhood to all manner of circumstances, injustices and unfairness levied upon us by the world, or the perceived limitations of our situation and environment. But, the truth is, there exists within our minds untapped power to achieve far more than what we imagine.
In my mind, I envision a world where individuals, worldwide, engage in the difficult work of building up their inner strength, overthrowing the Tyranny Of The Mind, and seizing their true power, such that the scales of justice, peace, cooperation, and freedom tip in favor of an unparalleled level of human achievement.
Impossible Dreams
In my mind, it is only through individual self empowerment that we will forever throw off the chains of external tyranny and abuse of power, and come together to form a more perfect union – a union of truly empowered individuals working toward a common good and the achievement of a universal harmony of being and doing. Yes I know, many will brush this away as mere fantasy, as utopian wishful thinking. But that is nothing more than the propaganda of those ruled by fear, mistrust, and insecurity. I know it’s possible, because I see evidence all around that whatever we can think of, dream up, or imagine, we can accomplish. The end result may not always look exactly like we expected, but look around you. Our world is filled with things that once were but fantasy and “impossible dreams”.
Get Up! Stand Up!
So, what will it be? Will you ignite the burning fire within yourself to rise up and overthrow the tyrant in your own mind? It will take work. It will require constant daily practice. It will demand of you that you not give way to the soul sucking distractions all around you, but instead that you get up and stand up for your power to be and do what only you can be and do. Only in this way will we achieve the “impossible dream” of a world that benefits all.
Get Up, Stand Up! – Bob Marley& the Wailers
Thank you all for the time and attention given to this blog. I value it highly. Keep your eyes open for more of my content coming your way soon. Big love to you all!
If you want to know what’s wrong in the world, all you’ve got to do is wake up in the morning and start engaging with whatever source of information you chose. The news of how F’d up the entire world is inundates our social media feeds. And, the news cycle itself seems to be a non-stop display of one catastrophe, controversy, conspiracy, corruption… after another. In fact, 2020 appears to be the year of catastrophe.
But, in my mind I’m looking at a much larger picture, where chaos and destruction are simply part of a process of renewal, like death clearing out the old to make way for the new.
Attentive Energy
There is a phrase you might have heard before – “Energy flows where attention goes”. It’s in times like these that it is tempting, and easy to put one’s focus and attention on everything that is going wrong, on how F’d up it all is, and to expect, or even hope for the demise of it all. Frustration with the way things are can often lead one to the point of wanting to “burn it all to the ground”, and to feel fully justified in wanting that.
It is not easy, in times like these, to turn one’s focus and attention toward solving problems, finding solutions, stepping up to the challenges before us, and showing up with all we’ve got to fight the biggest battle of all – the Tyranny of The Mind – that part of our minds that is waiting for us each morning ready to drag us into battle, defeat us, and drag us down into the pits of mediocrity and complacency. It is not easy to be determined to be victorious, no matter what. It takes courage, boldness, and determination.
Ingredients to Survive and Thrive
It requires three key ingredients, without which no progress will ever be made: 1. A burning desire to achieve impossible dreams, 2. The unwavering belief that it shall be so, 3. The confident expectation that it will be so. No individual has ever achieved great things without these three things at play in their mind. One must go to sleep with them, wake up with them, and proceed through the day with them, as though they are as essential to life as breathing.
This is what heroes are made of. Heroes are not instantaneously formed in moments of crises, that’s just where you happen to find them exercising their heroism. Heroes are made when individuals take on the difficult task of waking up each morning, and owning the day, by taking on the Tyranny of The Mind and winning, by actively engaging these three elements, and by their unyielding determination to stand up and show up in the world that day and move boldly toward the achievement of something spectacular.
In times like these the world needs Heroes. Now, more than ever, the world needs individuals who are ready to leave mediocrity and complacency behind, and to engage in leveling up their game. This is the moment! If you’re not already engaged in some kind of discipline training (physical, mental, spiritual), now would be a good time to start. And, now is the time to expand your knowledge regarding the ways and means of leveling up, standing up and showing up as a Hero.
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Curated by Mary Ann Gilbreth, Ed.D., Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy, at the University of New Mexico. This collections includes the work of her students from several of her Reading Methods Classes, promoting cultural diversity in the classroom.
