What is Conscious Living?
What is the definition of consciousness? (Please don't Google it. We intend to dialogue, not fact-check. lol
Poetry is food for the soul. This book of Cuban Poetry is bilingual. I think you will enjoy reading the English version next to the Spanish version and maybe getting a good laugh. Laughter is a Remedy for the Soul. Your purchase will be donated to CAMP1.org, a 501 for the Arts bringing you Tenths (Décimas) From Cuba. Click the image to purchase.
Would you agree that Conscious living is being aware of being aware?
But more than awareness of what is going on in the back of our mind, conscious living is when we live in the now, every moment.
Are we living consciously when ....
We are present without our ego,
acting in peace and harmony with what is,
respecting our surroundings, and
loving our family and friends,
helping our neighbors, and
wishing the world at large the same as we want for ourselves?
The Holidays MOSTLY bring out our best:
Consciousness, awareness, empathy, passion, and joy. So many sweet memories may cross our minds, while others, although bittersweet, may make us more hopeful than ever!
Most of us know that what we say, how we feel, and the actions we take daily, especially our intentions, affect our health, future, and happiness. What we do for love and in peace, we heal from. Where there is harmony, there is no distress.
Likewise, our energy also affects the people around us, our family and friends, and even the world beyond our borders receive our energy.
We also translated and publsihed another book by the same author. My Cousin Leonor compiles the letters a broken-hearted mother who writes to her son, exilee due to revolutionary activities in Cuba. Jose Marti was imprisoned at 17 for writing and distributing an anti-colonial student paper.
War-torn Cuba was then easily manipulated and its young homegrown democracy never flourished, giving course, a mere fifty years later, to another war that has devastated the country for 60 years and counting.
Our History tells the story of who we are and what are values are.
Like energy travels through the ether and attracts "like" energy.
I see wars now and behind us. What's the future going to bring? More of the same?
Is World Peace even a goal?
CAN WE FIND A WAY TO REACH OUT TO THE OTHER SIDE?
Democracy is more than an election an attitude of EQUITY AND DIALOGUE.
LIVING IN PEACE WITH GRATITUDE AND PURPOSE:
THAT'S OUR GOAL AT CONSCIOUS ARTS MEDIA PRODUCTIONS.
Peace starts with me. I reach out to the other side with whatever tools may be helpful to express sincere brotherly love to all affected by war and violence, whether in your backyard or across the ocean.
At CAMP, we believe The Arts elevate our individual and social consciousness to help us grow in empathy and compassion through collaboration instead of competitiveness.
Visit us at https://www.angelaterga.com/;
We believe Film is the most complete art form there is. Help conscious filmmakers reach their goals, complete their screenplay and submit it for coverage at Coverfly, just to mention one platform that helps filmmakers get their projects viewed.
A good Pitch Deck costs around $5000, but we only ask for $1000. All of which will go towards animating a one-minute, thirty-second trailer (teaser).
Choose your favorite AI-created "original" quotes on Conscious Living:
a. “Conscious living is the art of pausing to feel, the courage to choose, and the grace to live in harmony with all that is.”
Thoughts: Just how do you live in harmony? What does Harmony mean?
b. “The more present you are in each moment, the more vibrant and meaningful your life becomes.”
Thoughts: Are we really not allowed to dream when we are living consciously, or is living like a dream when we are living consciously?
c. “Living consciously means honoring your values, respecting the Earth, and embracing every choice as a reflection of who you truly are.”
Thoughts: Do we honour the Earth when we burn so many fossils, destroy so much plant and animal life on the planet, and fill our oceans with garbage?
Thoughts: Is war a value? It is a financial one. But is it a moral one? Is segregation a value? It is a financial one. But is it a moral one? Is mass consumption of so many unnecessary things a value?
You get the idea. We are not living consciously as a planet. We think that our actions against the planet don't matter, that our actions against humanity don't matter, and that repudiating our neighbours doesn't matter.
d. “Awareness is the seed of transformation; to live consciously is to water it daily with kindness and purpose.”
Living Consciously can be an empty phrase that just means, I watch what I eat, I go to church every Sunday, and I pray for my soldiers to come home safe.
e. “In a world that is always rushing back and forth, conscious living is the quiet rebellion of savoring each breath, each connection, and each choice.”
Are we always living from our own choices? What happens when we make the wrong choice? Regret is one of the worst feelings that propel us into despair.
we can elevate our consciousness
by lifting our neighbors
MAKING PEACE IS LIVING PEACe NOT JUST WITHIN OUR OWN LIKENESS BUT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AROUND US.
Whether it's a neighbor across the tracks or the ocean, whether it's the opposite side of our opinions, why don't we get our energies together and harmonize?
Can we show our gratitude by reaching out to the other side of our opinions across race and culture and class and property equity?
Peace is more an action VERB than a NOUN. We must act in peace, think, and speak in peace FOR US TO BE PEACE.
How would it feel to see dialogue and non-violence, arts instead of bullets, and talks instead of bombs on the news daily?
What if instead of repudiating the low-income housing project being built next to our middle-class encampment, we looked for ways to support them and at the same time benefit?
FINDING PURPOSE IN BUILDING PEACE SHOWS HOW GRATEFUL WE ARE FOR WHAT WE HAVE AND WHO WE ARE
Would that be a way of showing our gratitude?
What does being grateful mean? What is gratitude? Is it just appreciating what you got? Saying, "Thanks, Santa, glad I was on the good list."
Could gratitude be giving back?
Just how do we give back?
Would living in a more equitable society be a dream for you? Would conquering poverty entice you to befriend the folk on the other side of the tracks or even visit them at church?
It starts with reaching out and bringing in. Leave your fears behind. The folks in the low-income housing complex need your help. Make a business out of helping others. That's the best kind of capitalism there is.
HI, How are you? Welcome to another episode of memoir of a Mad Teacher
This is Angela Terga, and I am writing my 'Memoirs of a Mad Teacher' on this blog. I do so because I want to create a higher consciousness and pour that conscious energy into the world.
To do so, I would like to engage with an audience that values and pursues knowledge, equity, justice, peace, and harmony of thought and action with the world, not just their clique.
Are we too afraid to drive our golf carts across the tracks?
Have you noticed what the other side of your town looks like, feels like, and its crime rate?
Do we ignore our neighbours who living above-the-national-average crime zone and also below the poverty line? Those two go hand in hand.
I live in a community that environmentalists may consider an aberration of nature. The "drain the swamp" slogan was born here. The community looks harmless and bucolic, but under its girth lies a not-so-hidden reality—segregation, above-average crime and poverty.
Segregation is everywhere. Why bother discussing it, especially during the holidays when everyone is so together?
BS. Sundays are the most segregated day of the week in the USA.
The violent crime rate in Harlem, a segregated neighborhood, is at a staggering 31.6, well above the national average of 22.7. This means that residents of Harlem are at a higher risk of experiencing crimes such as assault, robbery, and homicide. Property crime is also a significant issue in Harlem. With a rate of 50.4 compared to the US average of 35.4, it includes crimes like burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft.
My assailant was another victim of criminal conditioning that youngsters go through in poverty during puberty, especially those at risk in Black and Hispanic segregated neighbourhoods.
There is a need to increase the efforts that address and reduce crime in Harlem, Florida, and ensure the safety and well-being of Clewiston's residents (the City Management is Clewiston) on both sides of the track.
Rated on a scale of 1 (low crime) to 100 (high crime).
NOTE: The city of Harlem, Florida, does not have FBI Crime Statistics. The closest similar-sized city with FBI crime data is the city of Clewiston, Florida. Isn't Harlem part of Clewiston? We share city hall, police, and sheriff departments, don't we? We have the same zip codes and area codes, the same Sheriff Department and Police Department, and the same School Board and Post Office. Why, then, are we blind to the other side?
I lived in Miami for 20 years, thinking it was a high-crime area when, in reality, it isn't. However, I had only lived in sleepy Clewiston for several months when someone, broke into my home with me inside in the middle of the night.
Today's Memoir:
Will i am - Grateful I am
First someone took a brand new laptop from my teacher's desk. Years later, someone else broke into my home. Is there a connection between the two incidents?
My memoirs today are about the time a tenth grader who called himself Sage broke into my home through the backdoor, wearing a hoody and a huge red glove (only one firefighter's glove) and made his way halfway down the hall to my bedroom and the guest bedroom door around 3 am on a regular day.
I was a light sleeper that night, so when I heard scratching, I thought there were rats nearby. I slowly and quietly reached the nightstand and turned on the lamp.
My bedroom door was open, and I saw him. He was halfway down the hall to my bedroom and the guestroom door where I kept work equipment (a computer and film camera).
I jumped out of bed and ran towards him, turning on the hallway light, and yelled: "What are you doing here? Who are you?"
A tall, dark boy in a hoodie holding a giant red glove in one hand froze in his tracks, stunned by the outburst of light and my thunderous voice, but he didn't run. He didn't attack me, either, for which I am grateful.
"What's your name?" I yelled authoritatively in my teacher's voice.
He said, "My name is Sage." (he also gave a last name which I have forgotten)
"Sage!" I yelled. I looked at him more closely. Was he Sage, a student I had met at CHS a few years before?
The real Sage was a special education student next to the Library at CHS, where I taught TV Production and was the Librarian from 2012-13.
That was when I leapt out of Miami and slid into the swamp to finish my movie.
I took the job of Librarian and TV Production teacher and stayed in a small apartment owned by my dad to save money on rent and be able to produce a movie.
My then-friend, the Superintendent of the school district, supported my candidacy for the job for which I was qualified. I think I did a damn good job, too. We produced the daily CHS Talk show, worked in groups, and simulated an actual TV daily show.
Everyone had their textbooks in order, but the physical and digital inventories would never balance. However, I was able to shoot (produce the film) on weekends, 100+ miles away (not a good idea, I know now).
When my friend, the superintendent, lost the elections, I learned first-hand what it is like to be on the receiving end of bigotry. Bigotry is not only based on race but also on association or opinion.
Elections were held on the last days of school, and during those days, I received a new laptop for a new MFA in Screenwriting Program.
I left the laptop downloading and went into the TV production room. The Library aide was conveniently not in his post, and there were no students in the library. I don't know if there were any security cameras because no one even mentioned it. No one cared. No one offered help. Everyone was silent. But someone knew, or they all did.
Breaking into my home years later when I returned to town was the sequel to that incident. I will reveal how below. In a later issue of the Memoirs of a Mad Teacher, I will reveal the details of that necessary return to the swamp in a segregated town of the deep southern South.
I was living where I am now, in my mom's old home, next to my late dad's apartment, the remodelled garage. I was still convalescent from double hip replacement surgeries when Sage showed up in my hallway around 3 am.
I can't say I felt fear, but I'm sure I did. Immediately, by instinct, I went into teacher mode. Teachers train to de-escalate a situation and pretend to along with unruly students to gain their confidence and lower their defensiveness through communication involving active listening and positive encouragement.
It paid off to have been a teacher in this country alone for 22 years and in Venezuela for 8, so I had 30 years of experience practising de-escalation techniques.
"Sage? What are you doing here?" I asked as I walked past him (he remained frozen), turning on every light around the scene: the kitchen, the foyer, and the exterior lights
I remembered Sage, the CHS student (not the aggressor, although he was also a CHS student), as tall and thin. Had he blown up that much in five years? No, this was not Sage. But I played along.
Sage said he was working for the Sheriff's Department in a new teens program and had walked into my home in pursuit of the bad guy.
He said that his mom and dad worked for the Sheriff's department, and the deputies would soon be here. So I was immediately at ease (right!) and asked him to sit down at the kitchen table. I made coffee for us (twice) and mopped the kitchen floor while we "waited" for the Sheriffs.
Meanwhile, Sage and I engaged in a very animated conversation about life. We talked about issues like Black Lives Matter, police brutality (he said never to call the police, only the Sheriff's), the school-to-prison funnel, and other issues.
We walked outside to look at the door where the bad guy had entered; he even followed me to the front of the house and re-entered the house with me instead of fleeing. But it was still dark. He would wait until daylight.
There was a reason why he wasn't running.
Back in the kitchen, it must have been close to dawn when Sage started looking sleepy. His chin dropped to his chest, and I was able to sneak a picture of him and text the Sheriff's office.
Sage looked around 15-16 years old in the face but had the build of an ox. However, his demeanor was gentle, his voice calm, he was articulate, and his talk was credible. Well, almost.
Had I not found him in the middle of my hallway at 3 am, I would have considered him inoffensive. I found Sage to be articulate and have proper manners, good diction, and logical reasoning.
Why, then, did he break into my home at 3 a.m.?
Remember I mentioned there was a reason why he wasn't running?
Sage had been sent to my house by a much older individual, also homegrown, who did know me and knew of my equipment. In the end, Sage confessed who it was.
The Sheriff parked across the street before getting out; I must have been mopping the kitchen floor again and saw the deputy's car from the foyer, but when I looked back into the kitchen at Sage, he was up and off his kitchen chair like a bolt fleeing through the back door, the same one he had broken into.
Here's why he didn't flee earlier. Sage was afraid of the guy who had put him up to this break-in, his buddy in crime, a 30-something-year-old who had also been an ESE student, as Sage proved to be.
Had he run out in the middle of the night after being found, his buddy may have beat him up, or the police may have caught him and beat or killed him. He was scared of the night and waited for morning to come.
Sage has been convicted and had previous similar law enforcement cases against him on file, already in 10th grade. Every time Sage is released or transported under custody, I receive a call from the State Attorney's office.
Sage is not alone. US Juvenile Crime rate by State.
Delinquency Profile Dashboard
Clewiston Crime Data
total Crime Index
18
(100 is safest)
Safer than 18% of U.S. cities.
Clewiston Annual Crimes
| Violent | Property | Total |
Number of Crimes | 23 | 142 | 165 |
Crime Rate(per 1,000 residents) | 3.20 | 19.73 | 22.92 |
Clewiston's harlem crime rate is above the national rate.
Social scientists have long understood that a child’s environment — in particular growing up in poverty impacts a child's perception of the world he lives in:
says Robert Sampson in a study that picks out the key indicators like lead exposure, violence, and incarceration that impact children’s later success.
How can we say we are living consciously when we look the other way?
Truth knows that we are capable of compassion and empathy, of a world worthy of saying "Let there be Peace in the World," because it starts with us!
TOLERANCE - GRATITUDE - PURPOSE - PEACE
Like you, I want my grandchildren and their children to live in a world that wishes everybody a Happy Holiday Season by ceasing fire and sitting at the table with our enemies whom we seek to understand.
In this blog, I bring up hard questions and recommend books authored by myself, the authors I help publish, and the bestselling authors who bring ideas about a specific subject or issue in a neutral, educational, and compassionate way.
I want a world where we help children and families feel part of the community, worship, enjoy music, feast, and dance together. Where the community os not "us" and "them" but "we." How hard that can be! Just look at your guest list! Observe how much of what you give is needed.
I would especially like to hear optimism when referring to new neighbors. No one wants homelessness or low-income housing nearby.
This is not a cookie-cutter blog, as I own my mind and gave up a lot to break the mold.
an-American Democrat, Buddhist, artist, teacher and life learner. But above all, I like to think of myself as fair.
Today, as I review the year, I am wishing everyone, and I mean everyone, a peaceful, heart-warming, and healthy last season of the year across other cultures, races, and wealth statuses in the war, where there is peace and especially so where there is war.
I live in a town divided into two. On one side, Harlem has 92% more violent crimes than the other side of town, Clewiston.
What are we doing about it?
Who cares?
What role can art have in saving the lives of children growing up stigmatized?
Are we willing to try something new or different?
Does anyone ever care to bring up the topic?
I'm sceptical we ever will. It would mean growth in ways we have not yet conceived.
We don't even pray for the dead civilians or uniformed on the enemy's side. I know. I've heard the one-sided prayers at feasts.
Why is there so much division in our communities and our world?
When was the last time we created a feast for the least?
Why are Sundays the most segregated day of the week?
Why is half the world blowing up and the other half pretending it is not their problem?
Why do we talk about our neighbour in a derogatory instead of wanting to help?
Few people from other American nations don't want to come to the US
Millions south of the continental US are running en mass to US borders by air, sea, and land. The banana boat nations, the wet feet, entire families, and troves of men, women and children are running towards the light. But they soon find out that all that glitter is not gold.
Can we help them stay home? Can we invest in their future and ours by helping neighboring countries build their economy up? Can we allow them to have opposing political views and still be our friends?
Tolerance is the word that complements all the other fourteen words for Peace, chosen by Dr. Santos, a Cuban MD, who shows how we can build a peaceful society by putting fifteen keywords for peace into practice.
Get the book here:
Have we looked at how many American nations have been affected by the US political and economic relations in the past 200 years? Even before the wars of independence from Spain, during colonial times, we know there was trade and political strife between the US and the rest of the Americas.
Today, we have more buying power in the US than in any other country. We are happy to be the wealthiest. Yet, we are lagging in education and superior in high incarceration. What's our rating on art appreciation? On peace?
Our values are more fixed on material things than on cultivating the soul.
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