Do You Hear What I Hear?

Wokeism.

Bad side of town.

Freaks of nature.

Infecting our Democracy.

New York values.

Our country.

Our God.

Coincidence.

Poisoning the blood of our country.

Make America great again.

Take our country back.

These and more are what is being said out loud in Conservative America.

Have you asked yourself, does it matter?

What does it mean?

What does it mean?

It means that the idea put forth by our founding fathers that America was created for white, male protestants who owned the land they took, and it was this destiny that guaranteed that from sea to shining sea, the white man would always and forever be in control and dominate was established by their white Christian God… forever…

It seems that idea still persists today.

There is a group of our fellow Americans who both believe in the sanctity of their religion, having a metaphysical control on their lives, the lives of the non-believer, and the nation as a whole, as well as the real expression that Jesus Christ established this sanctity that white males are in charge no others need apply.

Any lapse of control is a sin.

These expressions are code to the true believer who is willing to fight for their whiteness as ordained and established by their white Christian God.

It doesn’t matter if Donald Trump is scum.

He could be the worst human on the planet, but he has two things going for him you don’t see.

One, he’s a white male.

Two, he’s fighting for white America to re-establish a pre-white-male patriarchy.

He can actually do anything, and none of it matters to these supporters because he’s ordained by the White Christian God to save the White race.

Do you hear what I hear?

I am constantly reminded of South Africa.

The white peoples of Europe, specifically England, discovered South Africa and declared it white.

Declared South Africa White?

Think about how screwed up inside and out you have to be to be in such a mindset whereby you deny reality that much.

They were white and in control.

But, on the horizon, their hold on the country was going to slip out of their hands.

However, that didn’t stop them from descending into a brutal police state.

Apartheid.

It got far worse for non-whites as the day approached as the white demographic minority grabbed and killed to keep control.

America is slipping down the same slope.

That hardcore group of conservative Americans is not fighting for a political party.

Are you kidding me?

They are fighting for what they believe is their race.

They will not go away without a fight.

Words are a gateway drug to actions.

When somebody tells you what they believe, you better damn well believe them.

So listen up!

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J. Frey

Shoes

When you walk in another’s shoes…

Been told that ever since I can remember.

But what happens when you try on another person's shoes and find out they fit?

What happens to that story you told yourself about your place in society?

What happens to that ego you have believing in your own entitlement?

What happens when the shoes fit?

Somehow since, before the American Revolution, the People convinced themselves that they were exceptional.

Disregarding the French, who had already overthrown their Aristocracy, Americans told themselves a story that they were first.

They were the first to stand for liberty, for freedom.

But they weren’t the first, no far from it.

They weren’t the first white people who carved out for themselves a special place in the hierarchy of the universe.

American Exceptionalism is a unique kind of myth.

There are many kinds of myths that we get along with every day.

A universal myth that cuts across all cultures, ethnicities, races, and religions is that my myth is the only myth that is true, and all the rest drool.

Exceptionalism is everywhere.

You can’t get past the exceptional trees to see the forest.

It’s a human thing.

Humans convince themselves of a lot of nonsense.

It's what keeps us from all having nice things.

What happens when the shoes fit?

What do we tell ourselves?

Those people don’t feel pain; that’s why they don’t need health care.

Them folks don’t know how to cut their lawn, so take away their property.

They buy stupid things; don’t give them a bank loan.

These people are animals; they don’t deserve justice.

It’s all bullshit.

People, and I’m telling it to you straight because I’ve been raised with a lot of white racist people; they tell each other whoppers every time they are together how bad everyone else is.

White people in America have an exceptional problem imagining being in another person's shoes.

Why this self-imposed ignorance?

Why the hate?

It’s fear.

Fear of losing exceptionalism.

It is quite literally the fear of standing in line with everyone else and not getting to cut to the front of the line.

A fear that someone will catch on to all the exceptionalism bullshit and force you to the back of the line.

The first will be last.

What happens when the shoes fit?

When that day comes, what rejoicing there shall be.

When young and old embrace the fact that none of us are getting off the earth alive.

When we understand, we all bleed.

We bleed for the sake of love.

To love and be loved.

We bleed for respect.

We bleed for freedom.

For justice.

Take a look at your shoes.

Peace

Daniel J. Frey aka Toby

The Rain Is Here

All around us, the rain is falling.

Since Dylan put it into lyric, by the way, that was 1964, the American public has been at odds with learning how to swim versus sinking like a stone.

What I'm talking about is leaving ignorance behind and learning we can do right.

The rain falls…

The rain falls, and what it's doing is revealing truth.

In the 20th Century, the rain fell, revealing fascism.

The rain fell, and segregation was revealed.

The rain fell, and we discovered the poor were in need.

We discovered that women had rights.

The rainwater rose, and white nationalism was thrown into the spotlight.

If, by the 1980s, you weren't swimming, you were sinking.

Why?

The rain kept falling.

The rain washed away our delusion that authority, our leaders always told the truth.

The rain fell.

The rain fell, revealing a rainbow of gentle souls wanting to live their lives without fear.

It revealed that religious leadership preyed upon its followers' hearts, minds, and bodies.

The 21st Century arrives, and the weather forecast looks cloudy.

The rain fell.

They're hiding in plain sight; our social servants charged with protecting us instead abused us.

The rain fell.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

The rain fell, washing away the delusion that justice was applied fairly and evenly in America.

We rediscovered that some people believed themselves more equal than others.

The rain falls.

It will continue to fall.

Because love applied will never give in.

Love applied will open the eyes of the self-ignorant.

Love applied will openly ask will you change and join us in a great community?

Or will you prefer to sink like a stone?

Wish you love.

Daniel J. Frey aka Toby

The Trouble With Truth

Truth is not widely accepted.

Truth is inconvenient.

Truth will set you free only if you want it to.

Humans have told themselves stories in place of the truth since speech was a thing.

Their stories, myths, and beliefs all feel better and right and are easier to swallow than the truth.

It’s perfectly understandable; it’s perfectly human that we prefer our stories over the truth.

Our stories feed our prejudice.

Our stories feed our selfishness.

Our stories feed our entitlements.

If we had to face and accept the truth, the consequence would be responsibility.

What would we be responsible for?

The truth reveals that we are responsible for justice.

For equality.

For freedom.

For peace.

For the planet.

For each other.

We can eliminate poverty.

We can feed the hungry.

We can care for the sick.

We can live in a clean world.

We can control guns.

We can make the world and everyone living their lives fuller, richer, and free from fear.

That’s if we want to.

That’s if we want to let go of the stories we tell each other.

The stories that put the blame on other people.

The stories that say our deities will sort our problems out for us.

The stories that make us deaf, blind, and dumb to the suffering and despair in our world.

Our world is in balance.

The world teeters between the past and the future.

Our stories find their origins in our past.

The future is yet to be written.

Love can see us through, but love alone won’t get us over the mountain of ugly lies we prefer to believe in.

If love alone could have overcome our stories, the human race would not continually find itself on this carousel of doom it likes to ride.

What will break humanity from chasing its own tail of self-deception?

History, yes, history demonstrates it takes just one person standing against the darkness and saying no more forever.

Are you the hope the world is looking for?

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Purpose

Do you have a purpose?

Do you care if you have a purpose or not?

If you don’t have a purpose or believe in having a purpose, you are in the majority.

The majority of us do not have a purpose.

What is a purpose?

Your job is not a purpose.

In fact, anything that is a function by its very nature is not a purpose.

Function does not have a purpose, and consequently, a purpose has no function.

Many of us mistake their function for a purpose.

As I said, your job is not a purpose; it’s a function.

Everyone has a job.

Functions are a common set of actions that any and all life can do does do.

Having children and raising them is a function.

Taking care of the sick and old is a function.

Teaching is a function.

Eating, traveling, entertaining, preaching, fighting, sex, and more are all functions.

If any living creature can do it in their fashion, then it's a function.

Not a purpose.

Do you have a purpose?

You can add another fact that to qualify as a function, you can or could be paid for it.

Dentists, farmers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and politicians are all functions.

To have a purpose means, by its very nature, you won’t be paid for it.

As you can see, so far, having a purpose is not that attractive, is it?

Yet having a purpose is the reason, the goal of being alive.

Having no purpose is akin to being the walking dead.

Wandering through life feeding on the brains, the thoughts of others without regard to who will be harmed.

Never ever think that having a purpose means it has to be grand.

Important.

No.

That would be against everything that having a purpose means.

The smallest of purposes can also be the most important.

Being kind is a purpose.

Compassion is a purpose.

Empathy is a purpose.

These purposes are expressed through the language of love.

These purposes are executed through the administration of justice.

These purposes are held through the application of freedom.

It is through our purpose, our corner of life, that we have the privilege to make the world better.

Not for ourselves; that is a function.

The purpose of life is to make the world better for all.

How are you doing with your purpose?

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J. Frey

Friends

Everyone is your friend until proven otherwise.

The proof is through what they do and what they don’t do.

Who is not my friend?

The person who doesn’t want justice for me.

The person who can’t hear me when I cry.

The person who doesn’t understand peace.

The person who is entitled.

The person who lets me starve.

The person who is okay if I live in fear.

The person who hits me.

The person who doesn’t care if I live.

The person who doesn’t see me because of my color, my gender, my ethnicity, my race, or my personal belief.

Who is my friend?

The person who speaks up against injustice.

The person who comforts me in my despair.

The person who doesn’t make Drama in my life.

The person who lets me go through a door first.

The person who shares their lunch with me.

The person who checks in with me to see if I’m okay.

The person who hugs me without asking.

The person whose life would be dimmer without me.

The person who celebrates my life, who I am, who doesn’t need to change me.

To be a friend is both the most tremendous responsibility as well as the simplest.

True friends may not see each other for decades, but when they come together, its as if no time has passed.

This bond, this relationship, is the outward manifestation of an inward purpose.

That purpose is made real through our actions and inactions with each other.

That purpose is the true meaning of love.

True love and true friendship don’t mean no boundaries.

True love and true friendship mean we consider each life, each person an individual worthy of respect, of consideration, of life, of love.

Friendship ends when respect for boundaries is crossed.

Yet friendship is ever-growing and will continually change.

Friendship leaves open the door for redemption even up to the last second of life.

Friendship is symbolized by the open hand.

Is your hand open?

Open to those around you?

To the stranger?

To yourself?

Who are your friends?

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J. Frey

Indifference

Race haters believe they are the majority when they are not.

It is the Indifferent.

The indifferent do not react the world over unless they individually are annoyed.

They will sit on their hands.

They will bind their feet.

They will blind their eyes.

They will tune out the noise.

They will box in their hearts.

They will shuffle their morality.

Not until they are personally devastated will they take action.

Oddly enough, when annoyed, the Indifferent split almost down the middle on which side they will take up.

Just a tick less will become fascists as anti-fascists.

The Jewish genocide proved the power of the indifferent.

A nation, a world, the human race calmly sat by while millions of real people were put to death.

Their response was to do nothing.

Not in my backyard.

Until it was in their backyard, and their sons were killed at Pearl Harbor.

Not until then did we, as Americans, say we better put a stop to hate.

Charles Dickens wrote in a Christmas Carol how Father Christmas was warning Scrooge, the Indifferent, about Humanities' two children.

Want and Ignorance.

Want is the easier of his two children to care for.

Want needs, and once those needs are filled, hunger, shelter, comfort, free from fear; Want won't cause Humanity trouble.

Ignorance, however, will always be the root of evil.

Ignorance, both by accident and especially on purpose, is the cancer in the soul of humanity.

Ignorance will brush aside the milk of human kindness.

Ignorance only sees itself.

That is, until they are personally annoyed as a consequence of its inaction.

To paraphrase MLK, he said he would rather deal with evil because you know where you stand.

Indifference will wait on time.

Putting off doing what's right.

Until time runs out.

I'm also reminded of what that quiet voice keeps asking all of us.

Love reminds us that we all need to do more.

There are no alternatives.

There is no choice.

If you hear the voice of love, it asks us all to do.

To do right.

To do it now.

To do it without hesitation.

To stand, to clap, to raise our voice, and never be silent.

Silence is just as evil as hate.

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J. Frey

Heavy Lift

Some of our brothers and sisters believe that the law is up for debate if it is not explicitly written in the U.S. Constitution.

It's even up to debate whether it applies to you and will you obey it.

This is why there is a job ahead of us all.

There is a heavy lift.

The Constitution has to be amended.

What does amended mean?

It means that our society had grown more complex than when the Constitution was originally written.

In 1787 the Constitution was written by and for white Protestant male land owners.

Period.

However, in their wisdom, the founders put in a contractual clause.

This clause said that as the American Society grows, it will be recognized that this document will be inadequate for the needs of future citizens.

The Constitution can have its prose re-written, added to, and struck if a majority of States see the need.

Many of our conservative citizens believe that the Constitution is the same as their Christian Bible.

It is not.

Understand it is a civil document stating the rights and protections of its citizens and how they are to be governed by their elected officials.

It is not a religion.

It is not.

Consequently, the irony is that too many of our conservative brothers and sisters believe that if it ain't written in the Constitution, that right doesn't exist.

They are like the character George Costanza on Seinfeld.

When his boss fires him for having sex with his secretary, George laments, "If I had known, if it had been written down, I would never have done it."

This is the Conservative mindset; you have to have the law explicitly written down in one place and in one place only the Constitution.

Laws created by local governments, States, and at the Federal level are all up for debate.

Again the debate being will I obey that law.

Suppose there is no sentence in the Constitution saying there is a right to privacy between a woman and her doctor. 

In that case, that right doesn't exist in their belief.

No amount of legislation will convince them.

No amount of protest.

It must be explicitly written in the sacred document ordained by Jesus Christ.

Yes, Conservatives believe that the Constitution was dictated by Jesus Christ to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Constitution…

Yes...

Jefferson "did not write" the Constitution; he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

People with a belief have no room for facts.

Also, Jefferson was not a Christian; he was a Diest.

A Diest is a person who believes in logic over mythology.

Our heavy lift, if we can get the resolve together to do so, is to convince a people who believe in a mythology over reason.

It is not going to be easy.

Nothing good ever is.

Some people have to be dragged into the light for their own good.

I can tell you from personal experience that this is true.

Just like a Lifeguard… 

We who understand and believe in the greater good, for justice for all, are being called to come to the rescue of our brothers and sisters.

Our brothers and sisters are drowning under the weight of myth.

A myth that keeps them spiritually oppressed.

A myth that doesn't recognize their economic and social sacrifice.

A myth that forces them into servitude that cares nothing for their welfare.

A myth that keeps the power in the hands of the few, not the many.

This is the good fight.

This is the good work.

This is why you and I are here and now in this place.

Peace.

DFrey aka Toby

Why Change Can't Happen

Believe me.

That's the central problem in America.

You can believe me or not, but understand that there is a fundamental roadblock at the heart of gun control, abortion, voting rights, civil rights, and human rights.

That roadblock is what you believe.

There has always been an error in interpretation as to what belief means.

Belief has always been a zero-sum game.

You either believe, or you don't.

If you don't believe, you are somehow out of touch, sinful, against God, against me as a person who does believe.

There is no fighting belief.

Once a person has committed themselves to a story, it is impossible for them to entirely let it go.

And what does belief do for us?

It feeds our prejudice.

It feeds a monster called ego which demands that I'm the center of the universe.

Belief tells us it is right for us to be selfish.

Protect our own.

It feeds that inherent genetic childhood psychology, that feeling that I am the center of the world and that I must survive.

My needs before the other.

I am the chosen.

Consequently, in this mix in our nation, there is a group of people who firmly righteously believe they are God's chosen people.

And then some know that this belief exists, and they feed that prejudice for their own profit and power.

They keep the monster called white supremacy alive, feeding it the red meat of death and destruction.

They are the gatekeepers keeping the order in place.

These gatekeepers can be found in houses of legislation.

Sitting in judgment on legal benches.

In pulpits.

In our places of work.

In the home.

The belief that I'm better than everyone else on the planet is not limited by class, race, or income.

Belief is a cancer on the soul of mankind.

Belief served a purpose when humans were alone on a hostile planet of limited resources.

Belief is a sickness that rots society from the inside when you live in a world of abundance.

Belief keeps the individual isolated.

Isolated from reality.

Isolated from asking who is my brother who is my sister?

What does your belief tell you right now?

Can you see people marching for their freedom?

Or do you see thieves reaching for something that doesn't belong to them?

Do you hear people crying?

Or do you see beasts who got what they deserve?

Do you defend the past?

Or do you embrace the future?

Do you hate?

Do you love?

Change can't happen unless we change what we beleive.

What do you believe?

Peace

DFrey

Madness

There are no words that will stop the madness.

Only through our actions will we gain our rightful protection from fear.

What is at the heart of gun rights madness?

What is the pillar, the rock on which some believe we have an inherent right to kill?

This country, in particular, suffers from this madness the most.

The source the origin of this madness is nothing new.

No.

It was brought here with the arrival of Europeans to the shores of the Virginias.

It was in the hearts and minds of the Pilgrims.

It is the belief that God, the one and only, created the white race to dominate the world.

If any other race got in the way of God’s will, then it was the duty of white people to put the other races in their place.

It was their duty to kill in God’s name.

White people are the chosen people by God.

The source of the origin of the gun rights madness is the belief in white supremacy.

I’m too old now to pull my punches.

It’s too late to put a diplomatic spin on madness.

It’s time we took the lies by the neck and kicked it out into the spotlight.

This ugliness, this vile evil fostered by timid sociopaths to keep themselves in power, has gone on too long.

Guns are tools.

Not everyone is qualified to work a jackhammer, are they?

They may think they can.

They may believe they can.

But they would be mad to think they could.

Tools do not have an inherent right.

WE THE PEOPLE and our rights to peace, happiness, and security, our rights supersede the madness that tools are more important than lives.

WE, THE PEOPLE, have to confront our brothers and sisters who believe in the madness of white supremacy.

You can’t tell a rock to fly no matter what you think is best for that rock.

You can’t just tell a white racist to grow some compassion because it will never happen.

We have had over 2,000 years of the doctrine of love.

Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

How has that worked out?

100’s of millions of people have been killed around the world.

Murdered by white Christians.

If you don’t see the correlation between white people killing other races by the millions in history from the beginning of the Crusades to today, you got a bag over your head.

Until we confront the foundations of white supremacy that founded this nation and are supported by the Christian Church, we will never end the madness of gun violence.

Every Sunday, partitioners in this nation are told there is only one way to God.

They are told there is only one religion that God likes.

They are told there is only one kind of person God likes.

The white, protestant, Christian male.

All others are second-class passengers and are subject to being killed for disobeying white males.

This is the madness that is taught to our children before they can even speak.

This is what they learn in Sunday school.

They believe this is true because why would an adult lie to them?

Somewhere, somebody, and it might as well be us has to stand up and say no more forever.

Forever!

Drop hate be hope, people…

Peace

DFrey

Brotherhood

Equality.

The word the idea of equality strikes fear in many hearts.

Not just racial equality.

No.

But intellectual, cultural, physical, and gender equality also strikes fear.

How could someone be afraid of being equal?

Being equal means I am not unique.

I am not special.

I am not chosen.

I don't get a break.

I'm not first in line.

I am not the best.

Notice how there is a lot of "I" in these thoughts?

"I" as opposed to "us."

Human beings are unique as far as we can tell that they can hold two opposing thoughts in their minds at the same time and believe both of them are true.

I am special; therefore, mankind should serve me.

The rest of humanity was placed on this earth to maintain my position as leader.

No thought given that if you were so unique, so superior, that as it has been said with great power comes great responsibility, your thought should be just the opposite.

If you are so superior, you should be serving mankind, ensuring its happiness, freedom, and justice.

Equality.

Our journey to brotherhood has only begun.

It got some good press, like an announcement in the news back in the 1950s.

Like a voice in the wilderness that echoes between the trees, I am a man pricked up the ears of those asleep.

Far too many fell asleep after those voices of freedom were taken away from the world's consciousness.

Too many thought the fight was over.

It was only the first round of a fight that has no end.

Fear is a terrible thing.

It will make people do terrible things.

Fear will make people deny the truth.

That's why it's such a potent weapon for those who profit from fear.

Realize those who profit from fear it's their only source of income.

They know not of any other trade than fear.

Let us who know better trade fear in on hope.

Let us trade our fear for compassion.

Let us trade our fear for what love demands of us all.

More.

Love wants us to understand there are no boundaries to its reach.

Love is the future.

Fear no more, my sister, my brother.

We are right by your side together, facing the future together.

Drop hate be hope.

Peace

DFrey

How To Recognize You Are The Problem

Originally titled, "How To Recognize You're The AS*$#@!

As an empath, I see, hear, and feel more than a normal person.

This is not a miracle; it is not a superpower; it is not psychic.

Take a child with a sensitive personality, mix in a mentally and physically abusive parent, and what pops out of the psychological personality Easy-Bake-Oven most of the time is a sociopath.

0.5% of the time, you get an empath.

I see dead people.

I see their lies.

Everyone.

No matter how big or how small, I can tell in an instant you are lying.

What I can't tell is your reason.

You're motivation.

Before I was diagnosed at the age of 55 as being an empath with no boundaries, I believed that I was the cause of the hate in the world.

Everyone hated me so much that they lied to me about everything.

I never asked people why they were lying.

I assumed it was something with me.

I found out it wasn't me.

It is a world ruled by hate and cruelty kept in place by a vast ocean of indifference.

I found out I have the ability to immediately recognize who is the problem.

Not just the apparent tyrant.

But the indifferent, self-righteous, I got mine you go get your's, entitled, unaware, no questions asked, bigot.

Bigot, in this case, means - a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people based on their membership in a particular group.

The following is a list, not comprehensive, of both significant and supportive problems found in society...

You don't hold the door open for a stranger?

You don't send cards?

You don't come to a complete stop at a traffic sign?

You don't share the sidewalk?

You don't sing?

You laugh at racist jokes?

You steal?

You don't call your loved ones?

You own a gun?

You don't say thank you?

You don't vote?

Everyone agrees with you?

You stop across the crosswalk?

Everyone says you're charming?

You make those around you cry?

You ignore current events?

You hit your child?

You have a vanity plate?

You give the finger?

You don't ask questions?

You belong to a club?

You are physically violent?

You've lied?

Killed?

Worrying about the world is for others, you mind your own business?

You don't know what the problem is?

If you recognize any of these problems as being you, then surprise, you have begun the process of no longer being the problem.

Knowing that a problem exists is the first hurdle to actually taking steps to address the source of the problem.

The best thing is hope.

There is always redemption.

A chance to make what was wrong right.

That is our purpose in a real-life awakened.

Peace

DFrey

Empathy What Is It Good For?

Empathy What Is It Good For?

I see things normal people don’t.

I feel things normal people don’t.

I hear things normal people don’t.

Because of what I see, feel, and hear, it drove me to end my life.

The world was too much for me. 

I couldn’t take the abuse after living in a world a life of hate for 55 years.

Casual cruelty bolstered with a good dose of hypocrisy.

Talking a good game but never following through what love requires of all of us.

I had mistakenly, it turned out, convinced myself there was no more love.

No more love in the world.

No more love for me.

I was a loser.

No career.

No job.

No money.

No friends.

Everything I pursued failed.

By every measure of our Western society, I was a washout.

I couldn’t understand why people were so uncaringly cruel.

Cruel to each other.

Cruel to the people I love.

Cruel to me.

Stop!

A little voice told me to stop.

Don’t leave yet.

That little voice outside of me asked me to give love one more chance.

I had no more trust left in me.

I didn’t know what was wrong or right anymore.

So I listened.

And listened.

I learned that I wasn’t entirely wrong.

The world doesn’t understand love like I do.

At 55, I was diagnosed as an INFJ empath.

I was correct in being depressed with the world around me.

As Dylan sings, how many ears must one many have before he can hear people cry?

I had heard that song since it first came out.

Nobody was listening.

Nobody.

I pleaded with the sky…

You can’t hear people cry.

You can’t hear me.

What is normal?

Empaths are not normal.

I know now why I’m not norma now.

I see, feel, and hear things the average person doesn’t.

Just like a dog who can see, hear, and smell things people can’t.

You have to ask yourself, does the dog live a better life than you or not?

The dog can hear that tear that falls in the silence of your room.

The dog can see the lonely person sitting awake all night in the darkness.

The dog can smell the fear of life and death.

Dogs and empaths are alike that way.

I’m here to tell you it’s not a good thing to feel the pain of everyone around you.

Empathy what is it good for?

I have since learned to build filters, barriers, boundaries over the past six years.

I listened to that small voice tell me I needed to be what I was born to be.

No longer in pain, but to be free and let the world know it can do better.

To be on guard.

Now while the world sleeps and the dark side of humanity works to take love out of the world.

Outside tied up… that shadow at your door...

I’m the dog barking in the night.

Wake up!

Peace.

DFrey

Beginnings

Life begins when you realize you are not the only person who needs love.

Children know they are the center of the world.

Nothing can tell them differently.

Their wishes, their demands, their worldview places them at the center.

Nothing exists beyond the realm of the child’s mind.

They do not understand a reasonable bedtime.

They can’t subsist on one cookie.

Every want, every whim must be fulfilled ASAP.

The adult, the caretaker, is there to fulfill their prejudiced view of how the world works.

Only life experience will have a chance to break through this cosmic certainty.

The first time they feel hunger, and there’s no food that night.

The first time they see their caretaker cry.

The first time a wish goes unanswered.

Slowly…

Slowly…

Given enough time, this child will grow up and hear other voices besides their own.

The voice of despair.

The voice of fear.

Even, even the voice of hope.

The voice of love.

Every human who has ever lived or shall live goes through this cycle.

But not all come out the other side genuinely alive.

Childhood is a type of shell.

A shell that keeps the mind safe from reality.

Experience like a hammer raps raps raps on that shell, asking each of us to come out and play.

Not everyone can break the shell of childhood.

Forever caught in their own head, they can’t hear other people cry.

They refuse to hear the call for justice.

For freedom.

For hope.

For equality.

For love which reaches its never-ending arms around all.

Society, like a forest, is filled with life.

Some are sprouting, some are growing, some have lived a lifetime, and winter has come.

While others are still in the ground, in their shell, waiting for that drop of water of reality to break their shell and lift them up.

To begin.

Peace

DFrey

Why Care?

Isn’t it obvious that the majority of the human race rejects the act of caring?

If quite simply the majority agreed then the world would be different from how we currently find it.

There would be no hunger.

There would be no one in the need of a home.

There would be safety.

There would be growth.

There would be peace.

What we have is endless cycles of hunger, poverty, brutality, stagnation, and war.

We do not have a brotherhood.

We do not hear the cry of despair.

We do not feel the time is right for change.

What we have is belief in a cultural myth telling us one race is better than the next.

No matter where we find ourselves on this world everyone everywhere is fed the idea that they are the pinnacle of society.

This giant mass of malignancy corrupts the spirit.

Damns the soul.

It’s purpose?

To feed the wicked who profit off the resulting misery.

Until we find a way to break this hold on the soul of humanity we are doomed to repeat it forever.

One step forward two steps back.

Our fight is with the darkness that whispers… “Might makes right.”

The profit is power.

Profit from holding back food.

Profit from keeping people behind walls.

Profit from fear.

Profit from war.

Profit from ugliness.

There is an idea that has been expressed for the past 2,000 years.

Only love will conquer hate.

Repeat…

Only love will conquer hate.

As the wind of selfishness blows back and forth the voice of love has resisted hate.

It calls for all who are alive to care.

To care for the poor, the weak, the lost, yes even care for those that hate us.

To be alive means to love.

To be alive means to care.

To grow.

To challenge the darkness.

To not let evil blind and deafen compassion.

To stand in the doorway and proclaim freedom and justice for all.

Peace.

DFrey

Change Happens

Standing in the doorway of the schoolhouse.

Putting up a fence between countries.

Between neighbors.

Going to war.

Stopping people from voting.

From living free of violence.

As soon as you stop progress and implement conservative ideals, you actually put into motion a cascade for change.

Stopping change will have the exact opposite of the initial intent.

No part of this universe doesn’t operate around the physical reality of change.

Everything is cooling down.

Eventually, everything in our universe will reach the temperature of absolute zero.

Minus 273 degrees Celsius or for those who resist change minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s the temperature at which atoms no longer vibrate.

The temperature of the universe when it is absolutely dead inside.

Human beings have the unique ability to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time.

I love my mother, but I hate what she does.

Human beings can appear alive and active, yet inside they are dead.

Their hearts, their minds have reached absolute zero.

They no longer move.

They stay where their God has intended.

Their God can be ancient in its adherence to resist change or new.

The old Gods of prejudice, racism, elitism, religion, nationalism all preach and inoculate their believers in the ideal of not changing.

Keeping the social order dictated, carved in stone by their founding fathers.

Given the benefit of the doubt, the white man is on top of the pyramid while everyone else below him pays cash.

The human irony.

The human tragedy of this reality is that those who stand in the public space and declare there will be no more change forever… 

They have fired the first shot that will bring about the change they so desperately want to prevent.

Like a dam in a river, the water behind the blockage begins to build.

Through age and poor construction, the dam, no matter how large, how thick, how deep, cannot withstand the pressure of change that builds behind it.

You can’t stop the merry-go-round of life.

Life will find a way.

Life will pour over that dam standing in the doorway of progress.

And what is this progress that change in our society is pushing for?

John Lennon said it… 

Imagine no heaven, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, no possessions, no greed, no hunger.

A brotherhood of man where we all live in peace, sharing the world this universe together.

As one people in tune with the true nature of life.

Change happens.

I know I’m not the only one.

Peace

DFrey

Pant Load

Are you walking about with a pant load on?

As an empath, I speak from direct observation of our society.

Are you like the average three-year-old walking about with a loaded diaper?

Totally unaware?

Totally unaware of the stink left behind you?

I liken being an empath to being able to see germs.

I see germs.

I see the germs when you’re self-absorbed.

I see the germs when you disregard safety rules.

I see the germs when you neglect to care for others.

I see the germs when you don’t care about yourself.

Our society has waves of people in the wave pool with a pant load on.

They are unaware of the wake of suffering, of pain left behind them.

As Joseph Campbell observed, all of Western Society has lost touch with those rituals that told a person they no longer are a child; they are now an adult.

Children don’t think about the pant load they have on.

Adults do.

Adults can smell the problem and take action.

They clean it up.

The person who blocks the sidewalk, the person who runs you down in the crosswalk, the person who gives you the finger, the person who doesn’t pay taxes, the person who lies to gain power, the person who kneels on your neck all have a pant load on.

They suffer from not having empathy.

They suffer from not even having sympathy.

No one told them they needed to wipe their behinds.

Showed them how to wash their hands.

How to share and be a part of society.

Told them about love and charity.

Like children left to raise themselves, they don’t get what it takes to have a brotherhood of man.

They have no touchstone of what it means to be an adult.

They’re making it up as they go.

Those of us that can see and smell have an obligation.

Our privilege is to tell society to wash up.

Be a teacher, not a preacher.

Get itself right.

Get clean.

Drop hate.

Then join us at the table where love washes down and hope lifts us all up.

Peace

DFrey

Denial

I’m not fat.

Did I do that?

I don’t have to pay taxes.

It’s not my problem.

Those people are why I don’t have a job.

I have good genes I can’t get cancer.

The weather will get better.

I’m a winner.

Nobody is looking.

My husband has a second job, that’s why he works late.

She’s just in a mood.

Rehab will help.

That charity does good.

My pastor would never lie.

Covid is a hoax to take away my freedom.

Truth makes everyone who can hear it uncomfortable.

Too many of us prefer to be comfortably numb.

So many issues plague us daily. 

From personal to national, it is understandable why some of us want to shut it all out.

There is a wolf at the door.

Unlike the big bad wolf, this creature will be with us all for the rest of Time.

Covid will be here, but the creature I’m referring to is denial.

Denial is the effect.

The cause of denial is the willful ignorance of fact.

No democracy, no nation, no people, no community can peacefully exist when ignorance is put into a place of honor.

The burden of a healthy society is to care for the sick.

The sick include not only those with failing physical health but also those with failing ethical health.

Our brothers and sisters suffer from anxiety of uncertainty.

They fail to consider their responsibility for their own suffering that they have created in their imagination.

They fail to consider that their health, happiness, and freedom are born out of securing those rights for others and themselves.

We rise together.

We fly together.

We reach together.

We overcome together.

Walk away from the dark comfort of denial into the bright community of truth.

It’s your choice.

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J Frey

Why I'm Not Grateful

Is the ocean grateful that the river runs into it?

Is the sky grateful for another cloud?

Is a lion grateful for the hunt?

Are you grateful to be able to vote?

What does it mean to be grateful?

To be grateful implies something was given to us.

Something that was not expected.

Something that we could not achieve on our own.

Something that goes beyond our expectations.

Is the bird grateful it can fly?

No.

It flies because it can.

It is expected.

It doesn’t owe anyone or anything for its rightful ability to take flight.

It’s what it does.

As humans, we should expect to be fed, have shelter, safety, justice, freedom, love.

These rights of life are not given.

These rights are part of the expectation of life.

Our rights as humans.

To be grateful implies these rights are given to us.

By who?

Show them to us!

This is the argument stated in the Declaration of Independence of why our founding fathers were not “grateful” to the King of England.

Since the foundations of civilization, men have corruptly manipulated the weak.

The most insidious is the evil that men do to the minds of the innocent.

The most hateful is the idea that we should be grateful to them.

Grateful that we are allowed to exist.

That’s the implication that is being driven home.

By whom?

By white racist men in the white racist world, in white racist pulpits, in white racist places of power.

They are not giving; they are selling.

They want us all to be grateful to them forever.

They want us to owe them for allowing us to exist.

They want us to be on credit until they say we are paid up.

They want us to be grateful that they allow us to have our sustenance, shelter, safety, justice, freedom, and even our love.

There is no end to this mortgage of suffering.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful for the air I breathe.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed justice.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed to live.

If you want me to be grateful, give me something I don’t have on my own.

Give me an equal opportunity to work.

Give me financial credit.

Give me the freedom of the vote.

Give me respect.

See me.

Peace

DFrey

Original Fear

Children have a fear of the dark.

It is a rational fear to the child because they are still children.

The fear is born out of the belief that the world will change when the child closes their eyes.

A world that changes cannot be predicted.

Not being able to predict the future is an innate, fundamental fear response.

This fear is genuine for all of humanity.

To survive in a hostile environment, regularity, predictability allows for a relaxation of awareness.

Allows rest.

Allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That is why the parent puts on a little light in the child’s room.

This little light illuminates the room, the environment.

The child can peek out from their shut eyes and see the room is still the same.

Sameness allows rest.

Sameness allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That little bit of light of truth allows the child a space of comfort in a hostile world.

We, as the carriers of light, it is our privilege to hold up that little light of truth.

We hold that light of truth up in a hostile world.

That light seen by the fearful gives them comfort.

Gives rest.

Gives peace.

Removes fear.

DFrey

Peace