Everyone is Lucky, Everyone is Kind

On the road to Shambala......

Written in the early 1970's by Daniel Moore and covered and released almost simultaneously by Three Dog Night and B.W. Stevenson (as a country rock song similar to his hit My Maria), Shambala is a song about a spiritual journey toward the mythical kingdom of that name deep in the Himalayas.  The song fused themes of Eastern mysticism with that wonderful '70's singer/songwriter vibe that often tacked towards a gospel feel.  The term Shambala is in fact taken from the Buddhist word Shambhala which means the revelation one derives from teachings that acknowledge the desire and aspiration of human dignity and a flourishing culture of kindness.  While clearly the singer is on a journey to Shambala, the words simply mention the kindness he or she experiences along the way.  In that sense it can be inferred that Shambala may not be an actual physical place but a metaphysical metaphor for the journey towards spiritual awakening, awareness, peace, tranquility, and happiness.

"I can tell my sister by the flowers in her eyes..."

Oh Ryan...., have been out to Colorado this week 'cause it sounds like you been a smokin' sump'in'!

Not really.  See a few weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting minding my own business when I felt my IPhone buzz.  I saw the number was a *** area code.  I knew that probably meant a customer but I recognized that I had a missed call from that number earlier in the morning.  Perhaps it was a very irate customer.  Against my better judgment I excused myself and answered.

I said in my usual voice "this is Ryan."

On the other end, in an all familiar tone I heard a low sexy-smoky female voice say "hey Ryan Beaumont, do you ever answer your phone; do you know who this is."

WOW!  It was Alecia!

I replied quickly "hey Alecia I'm in a meeting, can I call you back in 15?"

She said "sure, talk to you later."

Now see, this is where two years ago I would stop and drag this out for two months.  But I'm on a 6 posts per month diet now so you get to read on a bit longer today or not since this still probably won't end in sex (at least for now)!

I bumbled my way through the remainder of the meeting wondering what on Earth Alecia was calling about. If you may remember I had found her on Facebook and we were "friends."  But other than a few cryptic notes "how are doing," "fine" we had not pursued any further communications.  Just in case you are new here Alecia was my first AM girl (read about her here).  While she is really cool and I enjoyed our time together it ended rather abruptly to my surprise (as at the time I was new to the game and didn't know that was a common outcome).

So I walk out of our meeting and call her as I am walking back to my office.  She answered with a voice that seemed genuinely glad to hear from me.  Apparently her office was planning a philanthropic event and was tasked with planning hospitality details.  She told me "I kind of got handed the duty of planning this event and I was thinking 'who do I know that can help' and then I thought, 'I know Ryan Beaumont - I'll call him.'"

Ladies, here is a hint on how to get me to do something (well really anything); tell me I'm wonderful and the only person you can think of to fulfill your particular need and you've got me like a puppy, truly!   :)

I was actually familiar with the event she was working on as we had helped in the past.  I told her to send me an e-mail with all the who, what, where, when and why and I would work up some suggestions.  Her e-mail came about 30 minutes later and we spent the rest of the day, off and on, planning the event.  We also made plans to meet at the site of the event the next week so I could see where we would be staging.  I really didn't need to do that as I said we had helped with this program in the past but it was, of course, an excuse to meet.

Alecia said we needed to "do lunch" some time and she said she missed the little cupcakes I used to bring her from the bakery in town.  Wow, good hint there for the future!

So shall I go ahead and talk about the wild animal sex we had for four hours amid the snow-storm?

Nah, this is about philanthropy and I, of course, don't want to embellish.

I think that is enough for today.

So for now on this snowy day.......

"How does your light shine in the halls of Shambala!"

Apparently to believe in Shambala is figuratively to believe that we live in our physical world with our proverbial Id and Ego at odds with one another with our Super Ego buried in the halls of Shambala.  As we do kind things (Ego wins) our "light" in Shambala glows brighter until we achieve some sort of paramount awareness.

"Anyone who furthers the name of Shambala shall be rewarded 100 times."

I was not sure if reuniting with Alecia on any level was going to brighten my light - but I knew I was likely to find out.

Oh and just in case you didn't know the origin of the term, "Three Dog Night" is a term from Australian Aboriginal peoples who on cold nights would sleep with their dogs (dingos).  If a night was particularly cold it was a "three dog night!"  Based on what it's been around here recently I'll be forming a group soon called the "(Electric) Twelve Dog (dang it's cold out there) Night!"      :)