I’m sorry to say so…but, sadly, it’s true…that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a slump. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

Excerpt from “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Suess

Thank you my wonderful friend for the wake-up call. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

I told myself that I was taking a much needed rest after celebrating another birthday and my Ottawa one-year anniversary in the month of October. I brought my garden indoors and do not have yard work or painting to do until spring.

I told my friends and family that I was concentrating on writing, completing some project and deciding where I wanted to direct my energy in the future. In other words, taking some down time.

With that said, I went inside my house, closed my doors and drapes, put on my oldest sweats, turned on my computer to junk TV, ate junk food and avoided my cell phone and email. I was in a slump!

Funny thing about slump energy…once you go into the fog everything slows down…did you know that Todd Manning’s daughter is still having drama with Marty Seabrook’s son on One Life to Live? The only soap opera difference from 1993 is that the characters are having sex and babies at an earlier age and nothing is left to the imagination.

As the fog got thicker, the chill around my heart got cooler, and I was lost in the darkness craving my drug of choice…junk food (high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil which are more addictive than heroin).

Open up a blank page, write a paragraph…open up a CSI show and watch a gruesome autopsy…eat a chocolate pie…take a nap…go back to the writing and open a blank page…write a paragraph…answer the phone and listen to someone’s drama for a half hour…open the mail… go back to the writing and open a blank page…write a paragraph…watch a soap opera.

Day one…missed a call from my best friend in San Diego. He asked me to call him back. Day two… called my best friend and he asked me to call him back in thirty minutes. I said okay but in my slump I forgot. Day three…after a day of sitting in front of my computer in my sweats without enough energy to go out of the house all day my phone rang with my Wake Up Call.

When I heard the special ring-tone of Thomas, the first feeling was guilt…I had forgotten to call him. His first question was, “Where are you?” To which I answered that I was at home in Ottawa Kansas.   Then he repeated his question…he does that a lot. “I know where your body is…Where are You?” Rather than admit that I knew what he meant, I tried to change the subject to him. He didn’t let me off the hook but he told me to close my eyes and come join him.

Without hesitation, I agreed to leave the body behind and fly on butterfly wings with a Jonathan Livingston Seagull attitude to sit on the La Jolle cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As I watched a beautiful young Thomas walking into the surf with his long curls blowing in the hot Santa Ana winds to join the hundreds of other surfers…I woke up..I remembered who I am.

Whether Thomas’ body was physically sitting on the cliffs watching the surfers is no significance as is the absence of hair and the changes the years have brought on his body. He reminds me that we all belong on this Earth because we have life.  The choice of how we live that life is completely up to us.

During the two hour phone call, Thomas asked if I was dancing, practicing yoga and taking my vitamins every morning…quite honestly it had been months since I had danced with Bob Segar to start my day or thought about a motorcycle road trip.   Thomas asked me when I was going to “walk on fire” again?

We talked about being lonely and not “fitting in” with the local culture in areas where we had been. We talked about our belief in peace on Earth and good-will to all people. Finally we talked about my purpose for being in Franklin County Kansas.

Wake Up Call! For all of you who travel and sleep in strange beds, you know what it is like to be awakened from a deep sleep and ask yourself, “Where am I and why am I here?” Then you remember where you are, how you got there and your purpose for being there.

We have wake up calls in life also…they are gentle reminders from good friends or the blaring ring in our ears of the cosmic two-by-four as it knocks us on our butt. Know that it is all a wake-up call to live our lives on purpose if we are still breathing after we receive it. I personally have lived through nightmares and received wake-up calls that would have killed me (some people wish)…except that I still have a purpose to be alive on this Earth.

Bang-ups and Hang-ups are a wake-up call. The question is: Do we answer the call to think about where we are are in life and what our purpose is for being on Earth or  do we cover our ears and try to stay in the nightmare?

Getting all hung up in a prickle-ly perch is an opportunity to stop and breath while we look at the present moment and determine where we go from here. Do we do what we have always done and get the same results that landed us hung up in a prickle-ly perch or do we make a change and dare to dream of what we want our life to be?

When I received the wake up call, I immediately went to my Grandchildren’s bookshelf and pulled out two books that I had sent them many years ago.  First I read, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Suess” to get a reality attitude adjustment and determine where I was.

Then I was ready to recognize and take personal responsibility for my current behavior when reading from Jonathan Livingston Seagull . “For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work. It’s all so pointless, he thought…I could be spending all this time learning to Fly!”

Why was I in this place of coming down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump?

“…one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we can possibly can.” How many times in the last year had I been told that I should either conform to the ways of Franklin County or leave?    How many meeting and forums had I attended listening to the “reality” of an area with poor self esteem and been told that I was an outcast whose suggestions were to be laughed at and ridiculed.

“Irresponsibility?  My brothers!” he cried. “Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life?    For years we have scrabbled after fish crumbs,…with no more to life than eating, or fighting for power in the flock… but now we have a reason to live—to learn, to discover, to be free! Give me one chance, let me show you what I’ve found…and with one accord they solemnly closed their ears and turned their backs upon him. This is what happens when you are bold enough to speak up and don’t know your “place.”

And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a slump. Then the question is…where do I go from here?    If we are watching television or listening to our “doctor” the choice of antidepressant drugs is impressive!   The addictions which hold us in the slump are all there in our thoughts…food…games…drugs of choice…money…sickness…gangs or groups.

Wake Up Call! When I break the chains of my thoughts I break my addictions. All limitations are self-imposed chains that bind me to my fears.  I was letting my fears get in my head rather than choosing to be free. I choose freedom to fly!

I woke up and remembered my dream and my purpose...

Environmental Sustainability, Social Justice and Spiritual Fulfillment to all who claim Earth as home.

Love, Light & Lots of Laughter…Joa

Email: joa@joacarter.com

Website: www.joacarter.com