Chris Duel

Broadcaster, Soul Provider

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Winter Solstice

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Do you feel it?
The moment darkness reaches its apex
And the bitter cold evokes your grief
While warmth, light and summer sun
Seem distant
You realize
The longer you live
And the seasons change
This frigid darkness
Is merely a fleeting precursor
To the return of the light
Through orbiting spheres
And the dance of all creation
Repeating itself
Again and again and again
After countless cold, dark winters
On this Winter Solstice
You choose to embrace the darkness
Knowing that this moment
Gives birth
To the light you need
Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

The Lunatic Inside Your Head

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Change Your Thoughts, Change Your World

There is a lunatic living inside your head. This lunatic is feeding your mind with fear based thoughts that are distorting your clearest, highest and most accurate perception of the world.
In Zen they call this Monkey Mind. In A Course in Miracles and psychology they call this Ego. The author Steven Pressfield calls this Resistance.
Ego is not your friend.
But you need not be victimized by the fearful, negative, angry thoughts of this lunatic. You can get clear. You can center yourself. You can ease your mind and transcend the lunatic.
The calm you seek is inside of you and as close as your next breath. Meditation can take you there, Music can take you there, Nature can take you there, your Beloved can take you there.
Go there. And go back there as often as you possibly can.
The choice of Love over Fear is yours and it’s the most important choice you will make every day of your life.

 

The Last Time I Saw Greg

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This is the last moment I saw my older brother Greg alive.

July 1980.

He’s goofing around and making all of us laugh, as he often did.

He was 31.

I was 19 as I took this photo.

I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy, aspiring to be a fighter pilot, like he was.

He had become an Air Force pilot like our father, who died when I was four.

We never know when we’re seeing someone we love for the last time.

We’re lulled into believing that there will be many more moments with them.

But this precious existence is fleeting.

On October 22nd 1980, Greg’s fighter jet’s engines flared out shortly after takeoff in East Texas.

Had he and his navigator ejected, the jet would have slammed into a neighborhood.

The two pilots chose to steer the flaming craft into an adjacent field instead.

That’s my brother, Greg.

Funny, Loving, Heroic.

It was 37 years ago today.

Seems like yesterday.

Seems like a million years ago.

Changed everything for countless people.

Damn, I miss him.

And I’m thankful to have had such a wonderful brother.

 

#ThisIsTheSacredMoment #BrothersOfTheSky #HighFlight

 

37 years later, Greg’s flight jacket hangs in my closet

(Above: Greg, his wife Mary Lou and children Taylor and Grant on the last day I saw him / Greg on Kelly AFB tarmac with F-100)

Leave Them Better Than You Found Them

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I came across a quote today…

“Leave them better than you found them.”

How wonderful is that?

Leave them better than you found them.

What if all of us left people better than when we initially met with them?

In every encounter, doing something to uplift others, inspire others, make others feel better. Without regard for ourselves, but with absolute regard for the other people in our lives.

How much better would all of our lives be?

I strongly believe that the benefits to the provider of such kindness would equal or exceed those of the receiver.

Why not try it?

Direct experience is so much better than theory.

Find out for yourself.

Leave them better than you found them.

And get back to me with your results.

 

One Year Ago Tonight

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Our beloved furry friend transitioned into the spirit world a year ago tonight.

The kitty statuette on the left of the above photo is an urn containing her ashes.

We didn’t really adopt Blackcat.  She adopted us.

She was a feral cat outside our window for many years.

She distrusted humans.  They almost certainly hurt her. An x-ray would eventually reveal she had been shot at some time in her life.

But we crossed paths. We fed her and earned her trust.  And we became a part of her life 15 years ago.

On a cold winter’s night, she needed a warm place to sleep and we had one.

Eventually she moved in with us and became part of our family.

Saying goodbye to a beloved pet is truly saying goodbye to a member of your family.

It is gut wrenching.

She brought us love, laughter and joy.

But on this night a year ago, there were tears, sorrow and grief.

On the evenings before she passed, I would gently pet her.

She purred, as if to say, “I understand. And I love you too.”

Just before midnight, after much reluctance and soul searching, Beth took her to an animal hospital nearby to humanely end her suffering. I was working a Spurs broadcast that night, so I met them at the hospital in time to say goodbye.

The 15 years we had with Blackcat had ended. Moments like these remind us of the fleeting nature of our time together.

When I started my car to pull out of the hospital parking lot, the dashboard clock glowed 12:00 midnight and a song began on a random satellite radio station I happened to be tuned to.

The song was “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

I would later learn it was from the “Twilight” movie saga, which I have never seen, and I had not heard the song before.

In the raw emotion and grief of the moment, it was as if a cosmic DJ, the Universe or Blackcat herself played this song just for me.

Here are the lyrics…

Heart beats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave
How can I love when I’m afraid to fall
But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt, suddenly goes away somehow

One step closer

I have died everyday, waiting for you
Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything, take away
What’s standing in front of me
Every breath, every hour has come to this

One step closer

I have died everyday, waiting for you
Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed, I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

One step closer
One step closer

I have died everyday, waiting for you
Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed, I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

Tears streamed down my face, clouding my eyes and transforming the passing city lights, whirling by the windshield, into streaking translucent tears across the starry sky.

Souls cross paths. Human souls and animal souls.

We meet, we dance, we love.

And all too soon, we say goodbye. At least for now.

But that love is eternal.

And we will meet again.

For a thousand years. And a thousand more.

 

 

Let It Shine

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Let It Shine

You don’t fully appreciate what you have until it’s gone.

Our power was out for nearly 23 hours.

Yeah, I know… “First World Problems.”

We were wondering if this would go on for several days.

But the moment when the lights came back on tonight, there was a feeling of hallelujah, liberation and rapture.

Something as simple as the lights coming back in your home becomes a joyous celebration.

If only I could remember to feel such gratitude every time I am privileged to turn on a light.

Let it shine.

Grievance or Miracle?

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Choose Miracles

Choose Miracles

 

“You can have a grievance or a miracle.

You cannot have both.”

 

This is my favorite line from A Course in Miracles.

A lifetime of experience reveals the wisdom of these twelve words.

They speak to the power of focus, the power of gratitude and the corresponding power of dwelling on the negative.

Miracles rarely occur when we are mired in grievances.

Yet when we appreciate our blessings, they somehow multiply.

There’s the old adage, “What you focus on increases.”

This is a transformative idea.

Do you want to focus on grievances or miracles?

Miracles are everywhere.

All around you.

Your next breath is a miracle.

Start there.

Miracles snowball.

And so do grievances.

The choice is yours.

It’s a big, life altering choice.

You are empowered to choose every moment of your life.

Choose wisely.

Choose miracles.

 

 

The Last Time I Saw Greg

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Greg

This is the last moment I saw my older brother Greg alive.

July 1980.

He’s goofing around and making all of us laugh, as he often did.

He was 31.

I was 19 as I took this photo.

I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy, aspiring to be a fighter pilot, like he was.

He had become an Air Force pilot like our father, who died when I was four.

We never know when we’re seeing someone we love for the last time.

We’re lulled into believing that there will be many more moments with them.

But this precious existence is fleeting.

On October 22nd 1980, Greg’s fighter jet’s engines flared out shortly after takeoff in East Texas.

Had he and his navigator ejected, the jet would have slammed into a neighborhood.

The two pilots chose to steer the flaming craft into an adjacent field instead.

That’s my brother, Greg.

Funny, Loving, Heroic.

It was 36 years ago today.

Seems like yesterday.

Seems like a million years ago.

Changed everything for countless people.

Damn, I miss him.

And I’m thankful to have had such a wonderful brother.

 

#ThisIsTheSacredMoment #BrothersOfTheSky

 

36 years later, Greg's flight jacket hangs in my closet

36 years later, Greg’s flight jacket hangs in my closet

We are Ghosts, Sleepwalking in the Dreamscape

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I was randomly flipping through a journal from last year and stumbled upon the passage above.

The word “ghosts” reminded me of the final track of Dan Fogelberg’s 1981 album, The Innocent Age.

The song is “Ghosts.” It’s mystical, haunting and evocative. On many levels, it’s my favorite Fogelberg tune and most people have probably never heard it.
It’s one of those songs that can take you into another dimension.

It’s fascinating that dimensions ranging from Heaven to Hell, from despair to bliss, are accessible in virtually every moment.

Here is Dan Fogelberg’s “Ghosts” via YouTube.  I didn’t create the video, but it’s not a bad visualization of the song…

 

This is the Sacred Moment

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Have you ever taken very deep breaths, calmed yourself into a moment of clarity and considered how very sacred and fleeting this life is?

When you remove your mind’s default settings of living in the past or thinking about the future, you realize that all you really have is this very moment.

Before this moment was the past. It contains billions of years of star collisions and the astronomical improbability that led to creating the one and only you.

But it’s over.  It’s past. Even yesterday and the last hour are gone forever. Phantasms.

Beyond this moment is the future we cannot see, but the near certainty that your physical life is a blink in the eye of the vast expanse of time.

So what is real?

This breath.

This moment.

They truly are sacred and fleeting.

The ancient wisdom traditions urge us to place our focus upon the here and now.

Instead of obsessing about thoughts of the past or the future, you can choose to be conscious of the blessing, the gift that you have right now.

All recorded and unrecorded history since the Big Bang and beyond culminates right now.

Right here.

Where you are.

With your eyes on these words.

In this sacred moment.

(It’s actually mind blowing when you think of the implications)

When you acknowledge this sacred moment you are operating from a higher level of consciousness.

You are no longer trapped in the Māyā.

Anything and everything happens in this moment, including magic.

The magic to see your life and your world as you were born to see it and born to become.

Don’t take my word for it.

Try it.

Breathe.

Deeply.

Let go of past and future and truly exist right here, right now.

Distractions may pull you into thoughts of the past or the future – this is normal.  Just consciously keep your attention and your breath to the here and now.

Stay here.

Stay now.

For just a little longer.

Open up to the experience.

And see where it takes you.

I have a feeling you will enjoy the ride.

This Is The Sacred Moment

This Is The Sacred Moment