With Christmas here and as we reflect in the depth of winter on the past and future.. The words to a new song started to come through. I have been hearing much disatistfaction from clients about present-day politics. Yet despite any setback, I continue to believe in the potential of the human spirit. I am sure that we can find ways to carry forward our dreams together.

BEYOND BELIEF

There was a time... not very far... When we were
singin' songs and swingin' on a star
We had our hopes... We had our dreams... But no
when I look back it really almost seems
Beyond belief.

You were my friend... and you and I... could speak
our minds and so we never had to lie.
We had respect... Was I a fool to think that we
could implement the golden rule.

But things are so much different today. When
Jesus comes again he'll sadly shake his head and say:
You still make war... You still have poor... You
should have listened when you had me here before.
You have the gifts to rise above. Where were you
when I said: "The Greatest gift is Love".
It's beyond belief.

And you still oppress the different and the meek.
When will you live the truth you say you seek?

Beyond the left, beyond the right. Beyond the need
to find more reasons we should fight.
Beyond our hate, beyond despair, and No, I don't
believe we're yet beyond repair.
We have a destination yet. And we can change the
world if we can only get---
Beyond belief.

As a psychic I have the special blessing (and curse!) of envisioning potential futures. As a result I am rarely surprised when dramatic events occur, since so often I have seen or sensed their possibility.

Lately I have been seeing futures that are increasingly disturbing. As a result I have decided to become more involved politically. Generally, I find politics and politicians distasteful, but with current social and political trends as they are, I can no longer hold myself aloof and still feel okay about myself.

When I express frustration about the current presidential administration's policies on Iraq, the environment, the economy, or preservation of constitutional rights, I am often told by my friends who are supporters of Bush that the alternatives (i.e. the Democratic opposition) are just as bad.

I am told that all politicians pay a price in order to be elected...catering to the special interest of their campaign-contributing 'friends'. Labor and industry lobbyists, trial lawyers, Hollywood celebrity supporters, Silicon Valley businesses, Indian 'gaming establishments'... They all buy a piece of the candidate and expect special treatment from him if he wins.

If this is true, then it is time that we elected someone with different friends.
The Bush administration's complete disregard for clean water and air is (literally) poisoning us. Yet Bush owes too much to the oil and mining interests. His 'friends' have been steadily dismantling environmental safeguards that were supposed to help us sustain life and health for Americans.

When the average voter hears about the 'environment' their attention span dwindles. They think about endangered species, the spotted owl, and ecology 'freaks' who sit in trees. They fear that someone will take away their car or SUV. They aren't particularly worried about the fate of the red-legged frog or the fringe-toed lizard.

But we all breathe the air. We all need to drink clean water. And we all know someone who has had cancer. Is it coincidental that our cancer rates have risen steadily as we find more contaminants in our soil, water and food?

Why is there so much cancer? Ask a lobbyist for any polluting industry and their finger will point at any number of causes. They never point it at themselves. But there are many questions we should be asking the people who make laws regulating the health and safety of our surroundings.

Why are cattle getting sick? Why are antibiotics becoming ineffective? Why can't we find a wide variety of fish in the supermarket? Why has asthma become so commonplace?

Even the industry lobbyists who hold our government hostage will one day be forced to realize the truth of an old Native American prophecy. "When the last fish has been caught and the last tree has been cut down...Only then will man realize that he cannot eat money.

When I was a teenager I could ride my ten-speed bicycle to the top of Pacheco Pass in Central California and see the Sierra Nevada mountain range 100 miles away. The snow-capped peaks were clear and sharply defined, even at a distance. Now you cannot see them at all. The pollution haze that we now accept as normal, blocks out the beauty of those magnificent mountains, even on a supposedly 'clear' day. Once we had a blue sky. Now we call it blue, but it has become blue tinged with muddy-gray. If that change had occured overnight we would be up in arms, frightened and alarmed about the pollution 'crisis'. But it sneaked up on us, little-by-little over the years. Now we are used to it. But it is NOT normal and it should NOT be accepted.

Will your children be healthy? Will you? For how long? How long can you live in a poisoned environment without paying the price?

Apathy abounds. Many people fight for their right to be apathetic... the right to be left alone... The right to avoid serious or stressful thought. With all the demands of modern life, who needs something else to worry about?

But not everyone is apathetic. A minority of concerned people still take and defend political positions. It seems sometimes as though everyone wants to argue a position. Crime, Health care, Social Security, Racial politics, Foreign policy...

But none of those issues matters. They are all irrelevant. Why? Because if we cannot eat and drink and breathe, if we so befoul this planet that it cannot sustain a healthy human population, then what does it matter?

Today there is only one political issue: Survival.

In the hierarchy of human needs, Survival comes first. And every living organism in this biosphere we call Earth, is connected to our health and survival. Kill a tree? We give up the oxygen it provides for us. Allow global warming? Then pay the price in skin cancer, crop failures, climate change and depleted oceans.

And those boring endangered species? We'd better stop being bored by them and pay attention to the degradation of the environment that is killing them off. We live here too. What is it doing to us?

Frogs are disappearing, butterflies are diminishing in number, and yes, the fringe-toed lizard is getting scarcer. Perhaps you never noticed lizards or frogs or butterflies in the first place. But if one morning you wake up and notice their absence... pay attention. They are trying to tell you something.

Write one letter today. Become a miniscule part of your congressperson's consciousness. Become part of the 'numbers' they live by. Let them know that clean air and clean food and clean water are important to you. Don't give up. It may get worse before it gets better. But it must get better. So I choose to believe that it will.

This Fall Kate and I took a brief trip (two days), up to Northern California and through the Sierras looking for lakeside retreats that we might revisit in summer. The leaves were turning and we barely beat the first big snowfall over the passes. It was a magical trip. We stayed in the small town of Quincy surrounded by natural beauty and local history. As a rail and mining town people came to Quincy from all over the world. Kate, (the dedicated genealogist), and I visited the local pioneer graveyard. So many untold stories! Two best friends side by side, both miners both dying in the same year. One a native of Cornwall, the other a native of Ireland. A boy, Henry, 15 who died in a swimming accident and was memorialized by his grieving parents. Veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I (including one man who was in the baloon corps!). Such old graveyards are rich in memory, the vitality and loving energy of families that have long gone to dust. If you have ever fantasized traveling back through time, and you have a smidgen of sensitivity... just take a walk through an old cemetery.

Here comes Halloween! My favorite holiday! This year I'll be attending a midnight meeting in a local site that is reputedly haunted. I'll report on any ghostly encounters that occur.
Look for an article in this week's Coast Weekly in which I discuss the nature of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeist phenomenae, and other strange happenings I've encountered in numerous 'ghost-chasing' expeditions over the years.

Thanks to everyone who came to last month's ROTA Psychic Faire at Monterey Peninsula College. (October 25/26) Organizer Julie King always does such a great job! Thanks Julie!
Though the reading sessions are short there is time to check out an aura and answer a question or two and this is certainly an economical way to sit with a psychic.

It is always good to come early to make sure you can get a session with the psychic of your choice.

I rarely do fairs, but this one is comfortable and well-organized. I think people feel the 'good vibes' radiating through the building. As a clairvoyant it is fun to check out all the unusual auras in the room and reading so many people over a short period is a good way for me to sharpen up my talent. I liken it to taking an old car out on the freeway to blow some of the carbon out of the system. Sometimes the clarity that develops is downright scary!

I have met so many wonderful folks at this faire over the years, and this time was no exception. Thanks to all of you, new friends and old!

My recent visits to Ireland and England were productive, fulfilling and filled with the kind of coincidence and 'flow' that keeps me convinced that there is a rhythm and rhyme to this crazy universe. Time and again we, (Kate and I), would be at a dead end in our research, only to be led to the connection that provided the next step. A case in point: Kate had been researching the McAnaney family tree. We were seeking the parents of William McAnaney who had left Clonmore, Ireland in 1850 to come to America. Before we left, she called Tommy Tierney "Tommy the Gravedigger" in Clonmore, who knew the layouts of the local cemeteries. He mentioned a 'Church Hill' cemetery that didn't appear on any map. Arriving in Clonmore we found an old abandoned house that we imagined might have been the McAnaney family home. (It wasn't) But when we asked the neighbors about it, they referred us to local historian Jim Donaghy, who had every map. resource and government record we had been looking for! (He had worked for the public records office for many years). We found ourselves tramping across wet grassy hillsdes and cow pastures to find an ancient burial ground ringed with a stone wall. The headstones had fallen or were half submerged in the turf. Many graves were simple piles of stone. But of five legible stones in this graveyard, one was Roseanna 'McNeneny' my great great great grandmother, mother of William, the boy who left for America and never returned. (More later)