I remember those carefree moments of summer where I would stroll down to my neighbor’s home who had everything we didn’t. Cable, drawers overflowing with sugary snacks and unlimited bootlegged movies. MTV was usually on when we weren’t watching another inappropriate movie marked PG-13 or beyond. I watched this music video over and over the last year of that decade we now call retro. It played out even in the Mercury Cougar packed with giddy tween girls except for the older and not-any-less-giddy brother that loved his car as much as the hundreds of videos he took pride in recording. After a routine spree to TCBY Yogurt and after my fix of white chocolate mousse, I may even have rehearsed the infamous slithery sideways flow of Mr. Rose just for laughs. Because what is summer without sunshine, ice cream and laughter. I’m not a die-hard Guns N’ Roses fan but this ballad had touched my heart, something really endearing about it…the feeling that this could be. No matter what the perception of a relationship, someone may be giving it all they got, and it can be sensed, whereas sometimes the person is doing the best they can and it’s where they are but may not be where the other partner wants to be or ever intended to be. Heavy, dark and disassociated never was my thing and playing along for some time now has revealed how far out of alignment I have strayed from my authentic self. This way doesn’t support soul or body embodiment, nothing hurled at us really does. But my eyes have seen the darkness; it has shattered my heart, but now I am geared up to transform. Now only from my lips you will hear, no mas of the obscurity because I salvaged the pieces of my heart and I’m arranging them back together one by one with the spirit of humanity and with the Maker on my side there is absolutely nothing that my heart can’t embrace that is less than golden. All we need is just a little patience to remember our worth to offer our gifts to humanity. As we get wise to our despairing situation where we can continue to quail, wince and recoil as the powers to be deem or we can offer our wholesomeness of our emotional intelligence, our sacredness, our hidden spark which has the potential to illuminate our days into the final frontier where life will ensue with what we dream of ever more fully. The choice is ours; it always was. I hope in these closing days of Indian summer, you preserve your laughter and as the weather takes a turn for the chillier side of things, it’s good to have a little laughter to warm things up in your heart and ward off any evil spirit that may have played up to your radiance. In the words of as my forever spirited yiayia, “ftou sou” she would customarily spit upon me for luck to protect my aura. She didn’t take it lightly nor frivolously as it was accompanied with a ritual of water and oil, some chanting and flickering of her hand as I awaited for her clearance when the negativity passed through me. But a good guttural laughter can do the trick. So when a little under the weather, remember your laughter and whenever you find yourself on the bridge convincing someone to do the work to be ready, remember you never have to inspire anyone to meet you thither only to leave you high and dry. There is more extraordinary love, more than you can imagine in this wilderness we call the universe or ourselves and as we pursue our innate sense to wander hither & thither, we will find what we are looking for. Have patience and compassion for yourselves while those not-so-virtuous caricaturists sketch and send off macabre postcards as we journey through this experience we call life.