Childhood Lost

Recession Drives Surge In Youth Runaways

It is a difficult time to be an adolescent. Not that it has ever been easy. Misunderstood, and often irritating, they can be difficult to be around. The main developmental goal is social, and that doesn't mean their family, who are often first in line for their angst. They can often be easy targets for familial scapegoating, as they make it easy with bad attitudes, laziness, and self preoccupation.

But underneath all that bravado is a child trying desperately to evolve, to become an adult, to be free from the dependence that has been all they've known. Some of these kids come from dysfunctional environments. Homes with anger, hate, substance abuse, and violence. And never more than now.

There is a group that is literally falling through the cracks. Children on the streets as young as twelve years old. Too young to get a job, or even rent a hotel room, they live in packs if they're lucky, sleeping in public bathrooms or foreclosed homes, living next to freeways, or river banks. As our economy struggles, no one struggles more than families on the edge. Armed with very little resources, they are the first to go under. We are seeing a surge in runaways unprecedented in this country. Families that are either throwing their children out on the streets because they can no longer afford them, or not calling the police to file missing persons reports when they run away. It is a serious problem, and growing.

It is estimated 1.6 million kids are kicked out of their homes or are runaways in any one year. Most return within a week, but many are not even entered into the database for missing and exploited children by law officials. Excuses abound. Outdated software, not enough man hours, etc., etc. But the bottom line? We will pay for these kids one way or the other. Either we will help them while they are young and on the streets, or we will pay for them when they enter the criminal justice system. But pay we will.

Am I writing about this because I want to give you one more thing to worry about? One more downer in a world full of them? No. I am bringing this to your attention because you are an intelligent, kind, resourceful group of people. You write blogs, work jobs, have an effect on your world, even if you don't think so. I just want you to remember these children, not to forget they are out there. Talk about them, bring them to the attention of your friends and family. Just please don't forget them. Realize that the 1.5 billion dollars allocated for fighting homelessness is targeted toward families, and not these children out there alone. Help out, or give a few dollars to your local teen outreach. Mentor. Give generously to your local food bank, because these kids are often first in line, knowing exactly when the shelves are restocked.

Just another sign of the times.

After you're gone - who cares?

I've been reading about the Tony Marshall case going on in NYC this week. Mr. Marshall was convicted of embezzling his mother's money, which included amendments to her will. As her only child, he is facing a prison sentence at age 85. The crime was committed while she lay bedridden and suffering from Alzheimer's and/or dementia. Mrs. Astor was a very generous donor to the Metropolitan Museum and many other philanthropic entities. One of her favorite sayings was from a Thorton Wilder play, "The Matchmaker", in that "money was like manure; it wasn't worth a thing unless you spread it around." Of course, a scandal of this size includes a grandson, who accused his father of not caring for his grandmother properly in her last years, nurses and household help with their own stories, a lawyer, also on trial, for helping him with the dastardly deeds. Not to mention a greedy third wife, on whose behalf he was supposedly procuring these funds. After all, what more do you really want to buy at age 85? (Except for that pesky yacht?)

All of this brings to mind the thought - who cares? I mean, should you care what happens to your money, once it is out of your control? Do you really want to spend your last years worrying about money, of all things? She had made the comment to one of her nurses that rich people were like poor people - they always wanted more. I'm not sure that's true. Maybe if you spent your life knee-deep in money, that could be the case. After all, you become what you focus on in life. But for most of us, money is not the most important thing in our lives, people are.

Of course, if you have a bundle, you would want to see your favorite charities endowed, but after that - why worry about it? I would like to think my children will look after me for my sake - because they love me - not because they want to manipulate me out of whatever I'm going to leave behind. It would be theirs anyway. After my needs are met, who cares what they do with what's left? Hopefully they are good enough people that they will do the right thing. Be charitable, considerate, kind, thinking of others and the future. And if they're not? Well, they will reap what they sow. It's only money, after all.

Nor would I think I was entitled to anything more than what I had given in my life. We all have emotional bank accounts. Back to the old "reap what you sow" adage. By the time you are really old, and fragile, it's too late to change the outcome of a lifetime of wrong thinking and behavior. Best do it now.

As for Tony, it doesn't sound like his son will probably spend much time worrying about his father, either. Dad didn't set a very good example on caring for the elderly.

I guess my point is that all of this revolves around money and control. Two issues I really don't want to worry about in my twilight years.

What do you think?

Pain Body

http://www.terragalleria.com/index.html

Have you ever noticed how some people will touch something off in you, and before you know it, "pain bodies" are colliding? Family members are really good at this.

"Pain body" is Eckhart Tolle's description of "remnants of pain left behind by every strong, negative emotion that is not fully faced, accepted, and then let go of, join together to form an energy field that lives in the very cells of your body. It consists not just of childhood pain, but also painful emotions that were added to it later in adolescence and during your adult life, much of it created by the voice of the ego. It is the emotional pain that is your unavoidable companion when a false sense of self is the basis of your life."

He goes on to say "If there are other people around, preferably your partner or a close family member, the pain-body will attempt to provoke them - push their buttons, as the expression goes - so it can feed on the ensuing drama." Tolle sees the ego as a gobbler of drama. "Instinctively it knows your weakest, most vulnerable points. If it doesn't succeed the first time, it will try again and again. It is raw emotion looking for more emotion. The other person's pain-body wants to awaken yours so that both pain-bodies can mutually energize each other."

I don't know about you, but this week has been a demolition derby for my pain-body. I think I'll take a break from all the crazy emotions stirred up out there. Avoid everyone for a few days. Maybe the energy will shift back, and my pain-body can go back to napping.

Now where are my headphones and that OM cd...

Difficult Childhoods

Lately I have been reading some blog posts that made me think about psychic energy and difficult childhoods. These particular bloggers, while humans searching for what matters along with the rest of us, also seem to be "tuned in" for a lack of a better phrase. Very sensitive to consciousness, energy, spirituality. Linda Pendelton did a post about psychic spies and remote viewing the other day. And one of the original participants in the CIA program, Joseph McMoneagle, commented that many of the psychic viewers were children of child abuse. Which of course makes sense. Children in dangerous situations need to use their instincts in order to survive, be it physically and/or mentally. These individuals, now grown, could be psychically "charged" in a way that makes them highly sensitive.

This sensitivity is good and bad for these individuals. The good is that they tune in first to all the changes going on in our world and often understand esoteric trains of thought very easily. The bad is that they are very sensitive to everything going on. They have fewer "filters." With the problems in the world, stresses at home and work, the tendency for depression and other anxiety disorders are more common.

Nde's, or near-death-experiences, often have participants returning to their bodies after resuscitation with stories of being told they have a mission to accomplish. That it wasn't their time, and no matter how hard their lives seem to be, they have not finished what they set out to do. Many return to lives spent passionately pursuing different lifestyles. Often seeing things very differently, than before the NDE.

Over the last several months I have watched some blogs go from the depths of despair, to people who seem to be much happier, and very connected to their lives in a fresh way. Much like the NDE experience, they are starting to lead very different lives. Their blogs are artistic, their voices sure and strong. They are talking about what excites them - and we are listening and following and learning in a synergistic manner.

So where am I going with this?

Well, I'm not sure. But I'm studying it. It may be what Trish MacGregor said in my comments section yesterday - we are a group of people who are meant to meet. The blogosphere is creating the venue. We are drawn to each other through intention. Whether to help each other through dark times, or to learn, or to be the first to celebrate good things that happen. To support each other. Maybe we are here to help each other "awaken" to a new way of seeing the world and all the characters in it. An NDE minus the dying part. Without all the pretense, without all the trappings of modern society, just us and the people we connect with.

What do you think?