work?

i ordered t-shirts this morning (if you havent ordered my peace shirts or other t-shirts, go to the website and get busy! http://royanthonyshabla.com right now there is a special: order three and get one free, they make great gifts) and i mailed packages at the post office and talked on the phone and sent emails... what an exciting life i lead! last night i finished the last touches (i think) on a button painting and am waiting for it to dry so i can put a hanger on it and hang it. actually im not waiting for it to dry, its drying and im doing the other things that make up my exciting life. i made a small booklet of the text for the body of water film, students in meditation class got a copy (maybe that made them sick???!!!) and others went into the mail. now thats its out, maybe i will proof/edit it! or maybe ill just have a nap, the details of life are exhausting.

good luck with that!

meditation class yesterday was so amazing ~ we did exercises to release the karma of past loves ~ that several people got sick! one almost fainted, one threw up, another couple had panic attacks, and others were generally dizzy and/or unwell. really a great class. and wifey didnt speak for a day ~ a miracle in itself! and you wonder why people are afraid to come to meditation class ~ they are afraid something will happen!!! next week class will be in my garden, the following week there is no class as i will be in the bay area. if you arent in a meditation class somewhere you are living in your own shit!

for information on spiritual remedies to remove karma, meditation classes, or general metaphysical stuff: http://blesstheworld.com

what a day

yesterday everyone showed up at the house. even though i work until late, it seems important to people that they call me early. and then show up. by the early afternoon, i had had six people through the house and a dozen phone calls and i needed to lie down for a nap! my assistant had a nap on the couch and then we made spiritual remedies into the evening. after that i worked on manuscripts until late, alternating the computer with television and telephone. and this morning it all started again. bright and early. i am busy all the time but it seems like there is always more... and the phone is ringing... who wants to rub my feet?

for information on the spiritual remedies: http://blessthebody.com

garbage in garbage out

a study just came out that says soft drinks arent good for you. duh! it also specifies that diet soft drinks arent good for you. double duh! who spent the money to figure that out? and where have they been all these years that everyone else has known that soft drinks are poison? now will the surgeon general place a warning label on coca cola that says "for external use only"? i am constantly amazed at the level of denial we as human beings are able to achieve when it comes to food (as well as politics, religion, relationships...). the botulism in canned meat has been in the news all week but the real surprise to me is that people are still eating canned food let alone canned meat. ew! when i was a little kid i told a neighbor mom that canned foods werent good for you ~ she verbally attacked me (a nine year old) wanting scientific proof... obviously common sense wasnt enough for her! and obviously scientific studies arent enough either as there have been several regarding soft drinks and people still drink them to the tune of millions of dollars a year. my refrigerator is stocked with coca cola (aka mexican plasma) and other soft drinks for the workers and the hansens healthy sodas are always the last to go... i drink water so dont look at me. many many years ago i met a young couple at the naturopathic college in portland oregon who were working for nutrisweet ~ it had just been released. they thought it was the best thing ever. the information regarding the toxicity of nutrisweet was widespread before the product ever reached the market and yet these people who were allegedly interested in natural health were able to sublimate their common sense and enjoy the poison. the original marketing spin to counteract the information regarding the toxicity of nutrisweet was that "its just like bananas and cream, how can that be bad?" or some such thing. and people will believe any lie that empowers them to arrogantly deny an unhealthy lifestyle. of course the karma is a shocking surprise! coke ~ the drink of the last generation!

yesterday and yesterday and yesterday

the cleaning lady is trying her best to work around my work so i went out to breakfast then a couple banks, post office, and gas station to give her some space. i got an email this morning from a high school buddy ~ i havent seen or heard from anyone since i left high school (even though i live in the same town i lived in then) ~ and it strikes me how distant the past can really be sometimes. i knew these people he is mentioning, they were a part of my everyday life, and yet it is like a foggy dream that was rapidly dissolving until we began to focus on the last remnants of the memories. my friend steve doesnt live in the town he grew up in (see details of trip to ohio from last couple weeks) but his ties there are very strong and he is in regular contact with his school buddies. i have trouble keeping in contact with those who are in my life now! the waitress at the breakfast cafe speaks to me more than some of my dearest friends... maybe i can make more of an effort to be in touch with friends... or maybe they can just read my blog and invite me to parties...

buried treasure

my daughter hadley wanted to go fishing sunday morning. she was excited about it but was worried about me ~ she told her mother i might not want to go because i was vegetarian. she then told her mother if she caught a fish she would throw it back and her mother was to tell me that. at six years old she already understands the concept of non-violence. it ended up she only caught seaweed. but the bakelite jewelry i brought for her from my trip had fish on it so she did end up catching something! after fishing and a little play on the beach, we went to see their new house in san pedro. they are moving from a view of a parkinglot to a full frontal view of the ocean with eucalyptus trees and cliffs, from rags to riches! it is a fixer-upper that will be inprocess for awhile but it is also a mansion on the beach. im so happy for them. i had read about the two guys in england who found a buried viking treasure. it was over a thousand years old, only a foot beneath the surface of the ground, and in a farmers field (a place that had been dug for centuries). how close are we all to treasures? in meditation class, we did exercises for bringing in the treasures that are right before our eyes yet we miss them. i am finding them every second!

for information on meditation classes: http://blesstheworld.com

saturday saturday

i answered emails and saw a client this morning. then big jeanne came over and we made spiritual remedies to take to the yoga studio tomorrow. i finished the button painting i was working on and am now getting ready to go to dorothys to take her to the movies. in between, i wrote a little and talked on the phone... dont i lead an exciting life?

for information on the spiritual remedies: http://blessthebody.com

idiot nation

the rules are now changed for airport security. even though flights are non-smoking, you will now be able to carry a lighter onboard the plane. you still cannot carry drinking water, it is far more dangerous than an incendiary device; you still cannot carry more than three ounces of anything such as shampoo, toothpaste, or foot cream ~ they are an unnecessary security risk... but a lighter, thats perfectly safe. it will come in handy in the event of a "water landing" ~ you can signal the private planes which carry whatever they like and maybe they will drop you a four ounce martini with two olives to celebrate the "safety" of our air travel. i go to the natural products expo every year and the samples of bath and body products i receive become my travel kit. a toothpaste called "hakim herbal" has been with me on my last few trips. it has writing in arabic on it. a military/security/southern drawl checkpoint guy questioned it: "i saw writing like that when i was in iraq..." "its toothpaste." "but we dont know what it says..." "it says the same thing your toothpaste says, people everywhere brush their teeth the same way. if americans understood that we wouldnt be in this war." of course, it could have been directions for a bomb!

good trip man

steve said it was the best trip of his life. and his health and stamina were amazing throughout it. his party on saturday night was a great great success ~ over a 150 people feeling so much love! a car had driven through the front wall of the community center building the day before and so there was some concern about having the party there but everything was fine. and in a small town, thats just something more for people to talk about! we had a bbq the night before with steves best friend bryce and his family and it was a lovely evening. the day after the party, we had brunch with the mcoys at the country club then visited with steves cousin at his bowling alley. as we left town, we had a beer in a biker bar with a couple other friends of steves that he wasnt able to speak with much at his party. the stories about steve from everyone the whole time we were there were delightful ~ he was such a bad boy, im not sure why that town welcomes him back! we did find time to shop for pottery and i bought some bakelite jewelry for my daughter. one of the most interesting things we did was to visit an area between roseville and zanesville (we were back and forth a few times a day) where there was an underground railroad. slaves were brought up the river and went into a tunnel in the toll house (which means local government was sympathetic)... the tunnel went for almost a mile to a mansion on the hill... a derelict amusement park just across from the toll house was where steve found some liberation of his own when he was young.

to participate in the peace and equal rights movement (t-shirt link): http://royanthonyshabla.com

home again home again jiggitty jig

well first: the sky bus was not that interesting and should not be confused with the air bus. its just a regular plane with no ammenities. the crew going from oakland to columbus was delightful, the crew coming back was fine... but in columbus (their home!) the boarding was so disorganized that it was difficult. preboarding meant you went first, everyone else piled on immediately after and it was difficult to get settled. in columbus, the plane is boarded both front and back and people from the back had come all the way forward before we got steve out of his wheelchair and the carry-ons stowed. o and beware: the carry-one size is minute. a standard carry-one that is normal for another airline is too large for skybus and must be checked. one of mine was two inches too large but quite easily fits in the overhead of other planes. you pay $5 to check each of your first bags and $50 for the third. you pay for your food and drink onboard (which is acceptable) but you are not allowed to bring your own food or drink onboard (which is unacceptable) and they do not even offer water for free. you can however hide your own food in your minute carry-on and nobody seems to care, not that i know anyone who did that! they also offer "gifts" for sale... i thought the poor sweet girls were embarrassed to be pushing the cart of odd perfumes, cubic zirconium jewelry, and liquered chocolates up the aisle three time during the flight. on the other hand, we met a nice couple who were going to san francisco for their first time and they had $10 tickets. i suggested they visit city lights books even though the shop does not carry my books.

to buy my books: http://royanthonyshabla.com

nighty nighty night

miriam, web goddess, put together the newsletter at the eleventh hour so it could go out before i leave town. she is amazing and wonderful and so good to me. i am almost packed, the house is almost ready, i am almost exhausted. i got a call from a client who happened to drive by the house ~she was happy to see the peace posters up again. i am taking a couple of the t-shirts on the trip with me, spread a little light to the midwest! this is my sign-off for a week ~try not to miss me too much!

for peace shirts, free posters, etc: http://blesstheworld.com

to see the relationship with miriam change, read on...

the plans

i am going to be gone from wednesday to wednesday, flying tomorrow to san jose to be with my friends martha and steve, then going to san francisco to meet chuck and fly to columbus ohio. steve grew up in a little town in ohio, roseville which is outside of zanesville ~ the pottery capital of the country, and he wanted to visit family and childhood friends. steve has a brain tumor. worst case scenario, inoperable, incurable. and yet it is now reduced 75%!!! his doctors attribute this to the chemo which has never worked on this kind of cancer, nothing has ever worked on this kind of cancer (in their book). they also attribute the damage to his heart to the chemo (which it does have a history of)... so steve is weak and has difficulty breathing and would not be able to travel alone... and martha is going to have a rest... and we boys are going to make an event of it. friday we will shop for pottery and visit with pottery friends. on saturday night there will be a big party in roseville. we will come back on tuesday and i return home on wednesday from the bay area. from san francisco to columbus we are flying the new sky bus. i am kinda excited to see how that works -- especially getting over 500 people on a plane in less than two hours... and then off again... of course, we have to get through the airport (with a wheelchair, drugs, and various voodoo acoutrements) first.

on the road again

today i need to prepare for travel~ pack, prepare house to be alone, prepare clients to be alone, etcetera... my webmistress miriam in mexico has jobbed out work to hindus in india and nobody can do what she does ~especially, it seems, understand what i want! but they are very energetic and kind and will get my newsletter right at some point... since they will be asleep soon, it might have to be when i return in a week... so back to the packing... i still dont understand how my shampoo is a national security risk. my sister said to a security agent once, "if i were gonna make a bomb, i wouldnt use a $22 tube of estee lauder lip lard to do it" (she might not have said "lard" but you get the drift). i have to decide what to wear to go through the airport -- i think i should just go in my bathrobe and dress after going through security. soon after 911, i was traveling somewhere and the hugest mountain of a black man was supposed to search me, this skinny white boy at the security station. we went through the first few superficial ministrations and then he asked me to open the front of my pants. i looked up at him straight into his big brown eyes and said, "i usually get dinner first." he waved me on without further search. damn.

on target

the live earth worldwide concert looked like a big target commercial. luckily, i like the target commericals. i watched for almost eleven hours, first at my mothers with dorothy and i being joined by my aunt mary, then at my daughters with little jean and jennifer. my daughter hadley wasnt interested in saving the world yesterday but has in the past made signs and posted them at the beach to encourage people to respect the planet and its life. thats daddys little girl!!! she watched moby dick in the back room while we enjoyed the broadcast. bravo and msn had different programming of the event and each was great. msn showed short films between bands which was a cool idea. al gore did give me a wave and a wink. this morning i finished my newsletter so hopefully it will go out tomorrow, depending on the weather in mexico... in it i announce that the peace posters are re-installed on my house and if people want to come and take pictures of themselves with the posters, they are welcome. email me for directions. hopefully you wear one of my peace shirts when you do it! (maybe some day they will be available at target!!!) the blogger software did let me write a title today so im sure the world is already healing... it still doesnt "remember me on this computer" but that could be because i shaved and showered. nobody recognizes me when i get cleaned up!

for free posters and peace shirts: http://royanthonyshabla.com

blogger

for some reason the blogger software has not allowed me to write a title for a couple days now... but when i log in, it has never "remembered me on this computer" so i guess the software issues are are deeper than i think... but arent everyones?

viva la revolucion

beto has been my savior, handyman, and gardener for several years now. he used to work for me full time but now only comes one or two days a week. whatever hair-brained idea i come up with, either he or big jeanne or both have been there to work on it with me. beto came this morning and we installed the peace posters on the front, side, and (a small one on the) back of the house. i told him we were revolutionaries like che guevara, he said che was cool. we talked about how what we do today will survive us... some kid who sees my house and posters will soon be telling his grandkids about the extremely goodlooking and slightly quirky man who lived near him when he was little... im going to dorothys to watch al gores live earth concert this afternoon then on to my daughters... the torch is being passed!

free posters for peace: http://blesstheworld.com

give em a hand

before surgery on her hand, big jeanne was told it would take six weeks for her to recover. six months later, the doctors are saying it could take a year or more. obviously the doctors dont have a clue (have you seen michael moores sicko yet?)... but the bottom line is this: i am hard-pressed to get any work out of big jeanne! so after spending the day at kinkos to get peace posters made, they still arent hung because i need another body (with working hands) to help. (if you want to see what the posters look like hung, go to the website and click on photographs ~ what have you done today to save the world?) i did work on my button painting only burning my fingers a few times. and i had a good breakthrough on the text for body of water (film). so my hands have been busy while others remain idle. tomorrow is the big planet party, of course i havent heard a peep from al gore!

addendum

my friend jack just called to say he was reading my blog and i never mention him. jack helped me pick out my new car. he points, i pay. there you are mentioned. jack jack jack! the kinkos experience today was challenging to say the least. deforestation was increased exponentially by the enlarging of my save the world posters. that would be known as irony! the brilliant cathy who worked at kinkos in downey was always able to enlarge my posters to five feet tall or wide with a minimum of effort ~she had a slide rule or a slide disk and knew all the secrets of the machines to produce a wonderful effortless product. but, as is the case with corporate america, the better you do your job, the less you actually do it (so if you feel you are stuck in a dead-end job its probably because you are not very good at even that!)... fedex who bought kinkos promoted cathy to shipping in another city and now she never touches a copy machine. its like great teachers who are promoted to administrators. we all suffer. the first person to help me at kinkos today couldnt even use the regular machine, 11 x 14 was beyond her understanding. her manager took over after the large scale copier ran out of paper from so many mis-calculations. he was worse/illogical but patient. an hour and twenty minutes later i had four posters and fourteen big mistakes. some of the mistakes were usable... but kinkos wouldnt give them to me without paying for them. why would i pay for mistakes they made when i could have as many of the ones done correctly (they were no cathy, but good enough) as i wanted? so the mistake "save the world" posters, miles of paper, went into the trash. not such good customer service or public relations. i was so upset by this way of conducting business i had to go to the seventh day adventist restaurant for lunch. broccoli soup, macaroni and cheese, cashew cookie ~everything handmade and vegan (and no mistakes) and jack jack jack didnt get to go with me because he had to be at his dead-end job. there you were mentioned again.

today

i am going to print and enlarge to six feet a couple peace posters from the website and paste them on the front and side of the house. i wonder what my neighbors really think about me as a neighbor! i am going to work on the button painting that is almost finished, hopefully i dont burn off my fingerprints! i am going to write. i am going to write. i am going to write. today. after breakfast...

for free peace posters... and t-shirts, etc: http://royanthonyshabla.com

independence day

happy fourth of july! i was up early and on the roof of the house doing some major feng shui work. beto is still there in the heat finishing it. i think about independence and how it can become "disconnection" if your soul is lazy... if your heart is lax... it is hard work to not be lazy! i will make a batch of spiritual remedies today before going to the firework festivities ~the remedies are for some clients who are not lazy, who are not disconnected. and if i get off my butt and make them, my wonderful assistant elizabeth will deliver them tomorrow. independence is intertwined with dependence ~and that is the joy of it!

for information on spiritual remedies and feng shui: http://blesstheworld.com

a night in la

saturday night, wifey and i went to the old adobe in los angeles for a benefit dinner for the craft and folk art musem honoring our friend carol. noah wiley was there looking handsome. all the girls from free hand were there. karyn craven ~the fashion designer~ sat with me. i wore a liz claiborne suit in honor of her recent death and looked pretty hot if i dont say so myself! it was a lovely evening. wifeys mother didnt remember she had met me as i was standing in a dumpster in the alley behind free hand many years ago. wifeys father didnt remember he had met me fifteen minutes earlier at the cocktail party. if i were a wanted criminal, i wouldnt need to hide; i would just have to bathe and put on decent clothes ~no-one would recognize me!