The Wednesday Gathering is not just another dinner party, though it does include a good meal. This is a unique social gathering for people involved in Tantra, Radical Honesty, The Lord's Chapel, Beltane, Community for Spiritual Living, Shalom Mountain, polyamory, Paganism, BEST Events and other groups dedicated to openness, authenticity and integrity. It is an adult only event (18+).

In a magical environment full of great music, candles and in a truly sacred space, we chill out and relax and just see how much we can really show up.

Bring your joy, your sadness, whoever and whatever you are and just be in a place where love and acceptance reign. It's a great place to meet a new friend or see an old acquaintance in a new light.
 
More details on the Wednesday Gatherings at
http://www.abundantmichael.com/blog/page.cfm/SandboxGathering

DIRECTIONS
The gathering is at

614 E Lynfield Dr
Rockville MD 2085
202-380-6850

Please park at the parking lot at the end of the street - reach it by making 3 left turns and walking back 100 yards through the park.

Note that mapquest gets in wrong in the last 100 yards, see
http://www.abundantmichael.com/blog/page.cfm/directions
for detailed directions and parking info

This entry was posted on September 7, 2011 at 7:53 PM and has received 1864 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry. Download attachment.

Sometimes I forget to play. Then my life gets dull and I may even get sick. Come learn how to put joy and spirit into all parts of your life this week with Joe Kenndy Jr and his Universal Peace Journey. I first met Joe at the Capital Creativity Network and he is a playful, creative and fun guy! You may have met him at my Yule party too.

Here in Bolivia I got busy working on a TeraTech project (I work remotely using gotmypc and Skype) and researching resilient communities in South America. I over did this using the computer too may hours and staying up late every night. Then I got sick and was so tired I spent yesterday in bed all day. A message from my body to get outside and play every day! Also I am grateful for yoga - that helped me get well faster - wen I was too tired to sleep doing a little light yoga help me relax and then sleep.

I am noticing changes in my aura and pranic bodies in last few weeks. I think Solar activity has gone up, increasing Earth's radiation and so decreasing the size of energy bodies. I have been doing work to strengthen them (yoga, Holographic Healing, Mark Dunn, Donna Eden). Sometimes I feel very tired and have buzzy head/cold symptoms. Gets worse if I am next to computer or cell phone for long time - EMF related I think.

Secondly I have noticed a pattern with the programmers I am hiring. They keep getting sick or busy so they either can work for me at all or only reduced hours. I have done some work on releasing this pattern myself and perhaps it is just the general Earth clearing and assention. In the last month here is what has occurred:

1. I hired D, a week later she had family emergency and had to quit
2. I hired C, he worked hard for two weeks then was diagnosed with oral cancer and had to quit
3. I hired S to work 30 hours per week but after he started he could only do 14 hour per week due to other commitments
4. I hired J and he got sick too, very tired (he is back now)
5. I hired R and he has been healthy but he got a second job to make ends meet that makes him unavailable 11am-6pm
6. An old employee A who had been helping out got sick, very tired and though he wanted to help no longer could
7. Another old employee D always has had difficulty with procrastination, is actually getting better now!
8. I notice that I am calm when these changes happen, know that it will all work out and I take quick action to move forward.
   :-)
9. Clients are all happy and easy to get on with :-)

On money patterns I have seen movement

1. I am getting better at sending invoices to clients on time
2. Got movement on selling my car from someone who is helping me but procrastinated for 2 months
3. Got lead on selling some software that I had been listing on ebay for past month with no luck until this week
4. Moved forward with renting my room at my house with help of Sandra and Randy

What patterns are you noticing in your life?

This entry was posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:27 PM and has received 1180 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I visited an old farm house in Bolivia this weekend - it is on hill above Lake Titicca - very peaceful. A bit primative - no shower or toilet. Does have running water from tap outside and electricity. My internet card didn't work there and I am going to buy another brand that should work there. The kitchen is adobe wood stove. Just like camping at Rainbow Gathering! :-) Unfortunately there is no water for growing veggies except when it rains in Sept - Dec, so I don't think it will make a permant home. I currently think I will live there for a week as a sort of "meditation cave" experiment. :-) And the hiking in the hills looks pretty too. Views of mountains with snow on them plus the deep blue of the lake. I discovered the lake is salty - a great inland sea - so not good for watering plants either.

I am going to check out another location in semi-tropical area of Bolivia where I can grow veggies. If you don't know Bolivia it is about the area of Alaska and contains many varied climates from high mountains, deserts, semi-tropical hills to tropical lowlands.

I also read about a valley in Chile that is good for permaculture:

These quotes from from SovereignMan.com you can read more on preparing for upcoming changes in his regular free newsletter.

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 6:14 PM and has received 954 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hmm how have I self-sabotaged myself in the past, let me count the ways. :-) From procrastinating over work tasks, to not looking after my health, to mis-communicating in relationships I have done it many ways. I had done a lot of work on becoming more self-aware and so this week's Sandbox on Awareness Process with Gene Freeheart is good. I have taken many workshops with Gene over the years plus went to his Sunday evening events and my experience is that he is great at creating safe spaces for deep sharing and is very kind and gentle in his approach.

I am back in Bolivia today and I noticed that my flight and immigration was much easier this time - so I think I must have had some self-sabotage running last time to make it a struggle! This time I bought a regular economy ticket on kayak.com and I checked the dates on the ticket. then two weeks ago I was checking how many bags I could take and La Paz is restricted to 2 bags due to the attitude for economy tickets... which was a problem because I have a lot of books and clothes! Then on the flight to London I was walking through first class and noticing the people. In the past I had a lot of judgments about people in first class - wasting money, who do they think they are etc. This time I noticed they are just people who happen to be sitting in different area and I felt love towards them. Oh, so what, you say? Well when I looked at my La Paz ticket more closely I discovered that I had been given a first class ticket by mistake!! My reaction was to accept what the universe had given me (I had to do a bit of releasing on that concept first however!). And then I enjoyed traveling in style and comfort plus the use of the lounge at Miami where I had a 5 hour layover. :-)

I have been reading a book "The Power of Receiving" by Amanda Owen, which talks about allowing things into your life when offered and I guess this plane trip was my exam from the universe on this topic! So here is my invitation to you - notice how you are when people offer you complements or other gifts. Can you receive with grace or do you push it away? After all it is impossible for someone to give without someone else receiving so we need both to occur so be can all flow in a space of love and generosity...

This entry was posted on July 31, 2011 at 4:14 PM and has received 955 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I have read that the amount of information on our planet is doubling every 18 months. Each year the amount of new unique data in books, TV, movies, internet, hard disks etc is over 1.5 exabytes or about 37,000 times as much information as is in the entire holdings Library of Congress! With the increase in data it becomes harder to make decisions in a purely logical and analytical way - it takes too long to consider all possibilities in detail and we end up overwhelmed. One answer is to use our intuition more and one easy way to access the intuition is a tarot reading. So this week's Sandbox to learn how to use Tarot to make Decisions could be very useful and time saving!

I arrived in England last Wednesday and stayed with my parents. Interesting exercise in my noticing my judgments around house clutter, dirty bathroom and humpbacks. :-) My mother has a phobia about strangers coming into house because it is "a mess" hence the bathroom tap has a bad drip for more than a year but she doesn't want a plumber to enter the house for fear he sees the clutter. I worked on accepting her, my father and my self just as we are. :-)

I have been recycling old papers of mine that are at their house - found some interesting old memories - some of which I did recapitulation therapy on. I gave some old lego and other children's toys to my niece and nephew who we saw on Sunday. They seemed to like them - they were better made than the modern lego in that they had more room for using your imagination. My cousin Jenny and husband Doug moved out of London to the countryside - less stress - but I noticed she still has a pattern to keeping busy and not looking after her health. I showed her the spinal flush from Donna Eden's book to help relax which she enjoyed and can share with Doug. I think I have the same pattern as her and I have been working on releasing it for the past six months.

  As I return to USA after a few months I notice the "water is getting hotter for the frogs" here - didn't always notice it when I was in the tub of heating water along with the other frogs .... DHS immigration seems to be questioning every American citizen as they return in some detail. Showing a passport is not enough to return any more (as it is when entering UK). All part of the climate of fear I think.... Which the new DHS video just out seems to echo (this from Simon Black at http://www.sovereignman.com/ )

In its latest effort to spread fear and hate, the Ministry of Love, also known as the Department of Homeland Security, has produced an Orwellian new video intended to encourage Americans to rat each other out.  If you're not in a place to watch the video right now, I'll summarize briefly.

First of all, it's one of the most pathetic attempts at filmmaking in the history of motion picture; the average shampoo commercial has better acting and production quality... and is much more subtle in its message. In the world of Homeland Security, terrorists all drive unmarked full-size vans, wear hooded sweatshirts, and deposit backpacks in conspicuous public places. They might as well have had a cackling James Bond villain twirling his moustache in the corner.

At its core, the video is filled with scenes of ordinary citizens spying on each other and alerting the authorities to their compatriots' suspicious deeds. In my favorite scene, a woman calls the police after snooping over the shoulder of a young man typing away on his smartphone. Naturally, it's all for the common good... for everyone's safety and security. In fact, everyone shares in this responsibility according to DHS, so we should all be on our toes to rat each other out at the first sign of suspicious activity. Apparently this is yet another obligation that comes with citizenship. 

For the majority of people who watch this video, their chests will swell with pride in the knowledge that they now have a role to play in their country's security. These are the folks walking around in the darkness, unaware.  You can't talk to them about things like personal liberty as they'll just regurgitate the propaganda they've been spoon fed since birth. These are the same folks who take their shoes off at the airport and proclaim, "Whatever it takes to keep us safe," or "I have nothing to hide!"

Truthfully, real criminals aren't back alley types, but rather the policymakers who spread fear and paranoia in the name of justice. They cloak their crimes in good deeds while building a brainwashed class of future Thought Police.  If Orwell had written a prequel to 1984, this would all be part of it. It seems the boiling frog is getting just a bit warmer...

May the water your are in not get too hot or may you notice the temperature rising and hop to a better location!

PS We have three talented healers living at my house: Randy, Rukmini and Sandra. Plus myself remotely. Learn more about what we can do and help support this Sandbox gathering place at http://abundantmichael.com/blog/page.cfm/Sandbox-Healers

In response to a question about 9/11 - Yes 9/11 happened and just because the terrorists are criminals doesn't mean that  they are the only ones committing crimes against society

1. There are many questions about how 9/11 happened and who was really behind it that don't match the official story
2.  Many changes from our government afterwards that reduced our freedoms and increased fears which make people easier to manipulate now
3. Two trillion dollar wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) justified on the basis of 9/11 that profited many powerful people with connections to the government that are still costing us billions of dollars per day now.
4. Increase of US debt to breaking point of US dollar
5.   A lot of spin and avoiding of news topics covered in other countries media in the newspapers and TV here in US.
6. Great increase in spying on the people in US and UK - CCTV, email scanning, phone taps without warrants

This entry was posted on July 27, 2011 at 12:05 PM and has received 1341 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Sometimes the days just seem to drift by without so much meaning. That is a clue to me that it is time to go deeper into my life. I have found many practices help me do this - noticing my thoughts, senses, what I eat, meditation, gratitude. I am interested in what works for you? So this week's Sandbox on Living more deeply and some practical steps for doing so is a good place to share what works for you.

Here in Peru I am in MiraFlores neighborhood of Lima. I didn't realize that Lima was so large (9 million people) - larger than Baltimore-Washington corridor I think. And having been built in the coastal desert of Peru it hardly ever rains here. However for 8 months of the year there is a high "fog" that covers the sun all day. I find it a bit depressing compared to the sunny days of Cusco! I don't know if it is the weather, the low altitude or the size of the city but people here seem less friendly than Cusco, less likely to smile on the street. The street where I am staying is also noisy with lots of buses and cars honking their horns. Perhaps that is something to do with the fact that many intersections don't have traffic lights or stop signs but are a free for all! One good idea I have seen here is a countdown on the traffic lights - similar to the pedestrian green/walk countdown there is in DC. But here it also counts down the time left on red. And it is on the car traffic lights lanes too. Makes it easier for the cars rushing to beat a coming red light to know exactly how many seconds are left, or for when to hit the gas when the light is about the turn green!!

I went for a walk by the Pacific ocean yesterday. The beach is mostly pebbles rather than sand and I still found the sea air and the sound of the waves to be nice. Speaking of wave they are big! 1-2 meters at the place where I was and I read another beach where they have 5m waves!! The surfers in wet suits were bobbing like seals in the waves and every now and again caught a breaker for a fast ride to shore. After watching all that action I wanted to relax. I found a nice massage place for S:/ 30 per hour ($11 USD) which was staffed entirely by blind masseurs - I take it that Peruvians don't like to be seen naked while being massaged! While I don't mind be seen naked I have to say that my blind masseur was very good and manage to find all my limbs by sense of touch alone. :-)

This entry was posted on June 11, 2011 at 3:12 PM and has received 1809 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I first came across Vastu and Feng Shui about five years ago and used them to change the energy flow in my home and business. I saw some amazing results. Subsequently I learned more about energy and how we can improve our  enjoyment of life by changing it. It is good to live in harmony with the Earth, as it seemed the Incas did here in Peru. This week at Sandbox we learn Vastu from an Indian Vastu-guru (see below for details)

Here in Peru I am back in Cusco staying at the South American Explorer's club house for my last week here before I move on to Lima. If you are ever interested in travel to this continent I can recommend SAE (http://www.saexplorers.org) for good resources, travel tips, a safe place to store bags and a good way to meet lots of other fellow adventures quickly. I have also been taking Tango lessons here which is both fun, romantic and also good practice for sensing and sending clear energy signals (eg which foot is moving, which way are we going). Being Bi I like to both lead and follow - both require different and related skills in feeling energy and staying connected with your partner - Good tango is a bit like a vertical expression of love making...

Last weekend I learned a lot about conscious healing and manifestation in our 3D world by working on conscious patterns in the heart-space of patterns. This was at Jaden Phoenix's (http://alchemywisdom.com/) workshop here in Peru - she will be teaching it in Seattle and in DC area later this year and has teleclasses too in case Peru is too far to come for a workshop! I found it easy to learn and seems to me to underpin some of the other healing methods I use such as Matrix Energetics and EFT.

Our tour group used it during a trip to Puno to keep us safe - the town was full of protests last week and we avoided the violence completely. :-) If you didn't hear about it the citizens were protesting that the Peruvian government had sold Uranium mining rights to a Western company and the company was polluting the water and many children had gotten sick from it. The government initially suggested improving the water over six months but the protesters didn't think that was a good idea and took to the streets. Some were violent and others were peaceful. And the Peruvian presidential election this week adds to the tensions (The two main candidates are a sort of daughter of Richard Nixon (her father is in jail for corruption during his presidency here) and a more right wing pro military guy (John McCain wantabe?). Peruvian friends here don't seem to think that either one is a great choice! On a side note several other counties in South America have introduced laws to make Mother Earth able to be a party to lawsuits so that the Earth's rights can be stood up for. I know Bolivia and Ecuador have this and perhaps Peru will follow suit after the Puno issue. (Some towns in US have introduced similar laws this year BTW)

love
M/M

PS We have three talented healers living at my house: Randy, Rukmini and Sandra. Plus myself remotely. Learn more about what we can do and help support this Sandbox gathering place at http://abundantmichael.com/blog/page.cfm/Sandbox-Healers

This entry was posted on June 7, 2011 at 9:00 PM and has received 1924 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I have used color to affect my health for many years - I repainted my house about ten years ago with bright primary colors to give it more life and improve my mood. (Before it was offwhite with black trim inside). More recently I have used colors in clothing and jewelry to change my energy and improve my health. And my acupuncturist Maureen Quinn sometimes using colored lights to help heal me. So this week's Sandbox on Aura-Soma Color therapy looks very interesting!

Here in Peru I am on a tour with two shamans of Macchu Picchu and other sacred sites near Cusco. I didn't realize that many of these sites are pre-Inca and may be 10,000 years old or more. One site we visited today was the Temple of the Sun which was in the old center of Cusco. During the spanish invasion of Peru in the 1500s the Catholic church build a cathedral on top of the temple and destroyed most of the  Inca spiritual pieces including a star gateway many thousands of years old. All the gold art and spiritual work was shipped to Spain and to The Pope in Italy where a few pieces remain in vaults at the Vatican. The rest was melted down... I guess the church wanted to take over the spiritual energy of the site and convert the natives to catholicism. However the natives while pretending to convert actually changed many of the catholic symbols - for example the Virgin Mary looks very like Patcha momma of Mother Earth!

While we were at this sacred site there was a photoshoot for Miss Peru going on there. Lots of pretty young girls in skimpy dress and underwear parading around in very high heels. The thought came to my head - is the photoshoot sacrilegious to the Catholic church? Or is building a Catholic church on top of a thousands of years old Inca spiritual site the bigger sacrilege? To add more food to this thought there was an earthquake 20 years ago here in Cusco - the 400 year old church walls fell down but the 5000 year plus pre-Inca walls were undamaged - perhaps a sign of want Mother Earth wants here? (Side note most other buildings in Cusco were undamaged. And the church rebuild their building on top of the Inca site again. Perhaps by 2012 it will come tumbling down again...)

This entry was posted on May 19, 2011 at 11:02 PM and has received 775 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

When I work long hours at a computer I used to get headaches, neck pain and shoulder pain. Sometimes I used to get migraines from it. No fun at at! I started getting massages about ten years ago and took up yoga to help stretch and relax. With all the stresses at work and in the news these days seems like a good time to learn how to give a head, neck and shoulder massage from an expert (and receive one too!). What a great skill to be able to share with loved ones... or future lovers...

Here in Cusco I have been giving and receiving healings with other healers I have met here. There seem to be a large number of people doing healing, Reiki and other spiritually related work here. I find even being at this location in the "world's navel" is healing - more so when I take a hike into the hills around Cusco to meditate in the Inca ruins that dot the area. I have found a nice intentional healing community here called Healing House and have taught a Kundalini yoga class there and last night I lead a Trance Dance. I enjoyed helping some somewhat stiff and shy Gringos and Gringas plus a few local Peruvians get into their bodies, out of their minds and feel their souls moving to the music. During the Chaos part of the music (there are five rhythms in this dance) I had the whole room dancing wildly, screaming and making animal noises. (Similar to the dances that Jim G of Sandbox coordinates in Bethesda area every Friday evening) It is good to let out that crazy part of us that we push down. I think that movement, singing, expression are keys parts of being joyful everyday!

One of the healings I received I noticed pain in my liver area and saw a vision of an angry snake in a infinite sign position. and the clouds looked like a jaguar (the healing was outside at an Inca ruin). I took it to mean that I need to not push down any anger in me, because it too is part of me and is divine. The jaguar symbolizes living with integrity - and that means being honest in expressing any emotions that come up including anger. And I see once anger is expressed that energy can transform into passion for action to change my reality. (If you are interested in animal symbolism and power animals check out the Animal Speaks book or get a deck of Animal oracle cards

This entry was posted on May 14, 2011 at 3:31 PM and has received 1204 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Self love - so important. The words "Love your neighbor as your self" include the idea that you love yourself! All of yourself, warts and all. We can only truly love others as much as we love ourselves I believe. So this Wednesday's gathering on loving our bodies is very timely. In modern society there are so many message, adverts that say we are not enough. Time to change those beliefs!

I was asked what is my Typical day? I start with doing yoga and other spiritual work, eat fruit and nuts at the hostal, visit at South American Explorer club or Healing House nearby and have interesting conversations, eat lunch at small restaurant, mediation MP3 and nap, computer work, dinner at restaurant - I taught them how to make raw zucinni soup so I can eat vegan and raw! May do some healing work on someone, read novel or watch part of DVD or surf interest or tonight go tango dancing at SAE club.

Today I went on hike to hills and ruins near Cusco and did yoga with a group there - great energy. Then talked with woman who runs Healing House about doing a healing  exchange and teaching there. And had a long conversation with a guy who has been doing jungle healing and Ayawaska journeys -I like the idea of the spirit journeys, less so the drug to get there...

This entry was posted on May 8, 2011 at 2:19 PM and has received 749 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.