I'd like to extend a giant "Hello" or "Howlo" to All -- and welcome back to Lady Wolf's Notes :)
Well, these are scary times, for sure. Some people are saying we're in the apocalypse. And if we are, or aren't, we have a lot of work to do to make things right. I feel I'll be sharing a variety of thoughts with you with this writing, though I also feel that all the pieces can and do fit together.
We're now the world's epicenter for Covid 19, with politicians using the pandemic for self-aggrandizement. We are a divided nation, with deep wounds that need cleansing. I'm reminded now of my late husband who suffered a terrible rectal cancer and a gaping surgical, radiated wound ... the wound needed twice-daily cleansing, the process of which was horrifically painful for him to endure. And that is the way it is with wounds of all kinds ... they need to be cleansed, cleaned out and it involves work and pain. We need to clean up our government and its agencies, starting at the topmost federal level and down through the states and cities. Honor the rights of citizens; re-model our police departments, treat our fellow beings humanely, atone as best we can for wrongs committed recently and in our nation's past. The wrongs began when some of our ancestors came to this continent from Europe, forced America's original owners out of their homes and off their land, and began disrespectful destruction of the lands and wildlife that the Native Americans had respected and revered. Those deeds are still blowing in the wind, still are not righted. Then, some of our ancestors sailed to the continent of Africa and rounded up many of the native people there, the Africans, put them in chains, and brought them on slave ships to what is now the United States, where they were "owned", "property", mistreated, and used as slaves. This is painful history and cannot be undone, but it ought to be acknowledged and the damage righted to the extent possible. We in the United States are all Americans. There is no room here for hatred and racism. The only acceptable path is love.
And we are now facing the wrath of a pandemic.
Can each of us strive to be accountable, kind, ethical, civil, humane? Let's start with our current crisis ... let's each one of us wear a face covering when we are in public. Protect yourself and protect others. We need to rise above this pandemic and save lives in order to be able to fix all the other things. We need to acknowledge, respect, and address the concerns of peaceful protesters. We need to be peaceful when we protest in order to gain respect for our cause. And in the coming months, please let's hope, pray, and work for a cleansing of our politics and government.
I'd like to write a little joyful thing here. I always have a little reservoir of joy on hand, just waiting to make an appearance. So I'm going to reference and re-post here a tiny edited segment of a piece I wrote two or three years ago. It says I'm wondering if there is anything that the general populace can do to help unite people, reach across the divide, and promote the concept of universal love, health, and peace of mind? As a musician and a scientist, I'm suggesting the healing universal vehicle of music to accompany and complement our social and scientific efforts in combating the current illness and fear. Maybe we could resurrect songs like "Love Train", "Blowin' In The Wind", "Imagine". How about adding new healing music (in all musical genres) that also would serve us and others in a healing way? We need to feel a positive connection, compassion, respect for our planet and all of its beings, and, above all -- a sense of gratitude for Life itself ... and all that is beautiful. Amen.
Showing posts with label Universal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Very, Very Important Stuff That May Help...
Hello Everybody,
I know I've not been heard from in quite a while; the major reason is that my husband was increasingly incapacitated over the past year or so and I was kept very busy. But the real thing I want to tell you about isn't as much about me as it could be about helping someone else whose spouse has been tortuously ill and dies. When Jerry passed away on January 14th of this year, he was released into the peace he needed and on the following Sunday he had a lovely service for which I am very grateful ... a great and personable minister, a throng of wonderful friends of his two oldest adult children (my step-children), a major turnout including my and Jerry's daughter, my closest friend, many other dear friends of mine who are fellow musicians, and some who are my fellow animal advocates. There was a lovely picture slide show and the service was glorious!
There is always "the day after" when I expected to feel whatever people feel on the day after. But it was only a few hours into that day before the onslaught began. There isn't a way I can politely describe the avalanche of medical bills from doctors I'd never heard of, as well as a few I had knowledge of having treated Jerry with treatments I hadn't approved of. I should refer to my late husband as Gerald as that was his preference in recent years. I dutifully paid each bill a day or so after its arrival, thinking that after a while it will be over.
It wasn't. It escalated. Weeks later, it became terrifying when I realized that the sizable amount of money that had been in Gerald's accounts was shrinking fast. I became scared and thought my life will not be worth living (or possible to live) and I started hating my overstuffed mailbox. I began calling the creditors and some of them said that if I pay the bill in full they will give a 20% discount. In those frenzied moments it sounded like they were giving me something. Not true, folks! Not true! And here is why:
My new attorney (whom I'd contacted to revise my Will and my friend's Will) told me yesterday that I've been paying bills for which I am not legally responsible. God bless him. Yes. A surge of hope went through me when he said that. You see, the lawyer I'd inherited from the legal group I'd had for years when my previous attorney left to do other things, did not tell me what I'm about to share with you. She appeared to be interested mainly in accessing control of my finances. Yesterday I learned that if a spouse dies leaving his widow with a P.O.D. on each of his savings accounts, with the house deed being in both names, the surviving spouse immediately gets these things and is not responsible for payment of the deceased person's personal and medical debts. Tennessee is not a community property state. When I found this out, I had already paid five-digit numbers of dollars and still had more bills coming in, demanding immediate payment. This morning I've had the freeing experience of telling-off two of the money-seekers. All they needed to get from me was my husband's date of death, with one of them requesting a copy of the death certificate. So ... they know ... but they don't tell us! Yes, this is what our health system has devolved into. It is big business ... and it's almost impossible to find a doctor who isn't owned by a corporation. Corporations have tentacles that reach into other corporations ... and there is a huge supply of people to initiate bills. So I've laid it out here, in the hope that what I've said here will help someone else whose spouse has recently died.
To end on a positive topic ... no, to have a new beginning of a positive topic, through all of this, the music kept me alive; I especially love watching the YouTube music videos of Beverly (Guitar) Watkins ... what a tremendous musician and personality; she passed a month or so ago, but her music lives on. Just Google her name and YouTube and my favorite video of hers is "Rock Me Baby"; it's done like you've never heard/seen before and it actually picks you up so wonderfully.
I'm interested in getting together with other musicians ... I've got the space at my house ... and my house loves to hear music. So does my dog :) He sometimes howls with music. Music has great healing energies. Music is the Universal language ... esoterically and literally ... those planets whirling around up there make music; and you may have noticed that when musicians are playing together, there is no racial strife, no worldly troubles, no politics, no negativity, just bliss :)
Peace and Joy.
I know I've not been heard from in quite a while; the major reason is that my husband was increasingly incapacitated over the past year or so and I was kept very busy. But the real thing I want to tell you about isn't as much about me as it could be about helping someone else whose spouse has been tortuously ill and dies. When Jerry passed away on January 14th of this year, he was released into the peace he needed and on the following Sunday he had a lovely service for which I am very grateful ... a great and personable minister, a throng of wonderful friends of his two oldest adult children (my step-children), a major turnout including my and Jerry's daughter, my closest friend, many other dear friends of mine who are fellow musicians, and some who are my fellow animal advocates. There was a lovely picture slide show and the service was glorious!
There is always "the day after" when I expected to feel whatever people feel on the day after. But it was only a few hours into that day before the onslaught began. There isn't a way I can politely describe the avalanche of medical bills from doctors I'd never heard of, as well as a few I had knowledge of having treated Jerry with treatments I hadn't approved of. I should refer to my late husband as Gerald as that was his preference in recent years. I dutifully paid each bill a day or so after its arrival, thinking that after a while it will be over.
It wasn't. It escalated. Weeks later, it became terrifying when I realized that the sizable amount of money that had been in Gerald's accounts was shrinking fast. I became scared and thought my life will not be worth living (or possible to live) and I started hating my overstuffed mailbox. I began calling the creditors and some of them said that if I pay the bill in full they will give a 20% discount. In those frenzied moments it sounded like they were giving me something. Not true, folks! Not true! And here is why:
My new attorney (whom I'd contacted to revise my Will and my friend's Will) told me yesterday that I've been paying bills for which I am not legally responsible. God bless him. Yes. A surge of hope went through me when he said that. You see, the lawyer I'd inherited from the legal group I'd had for years when my previous attorney left to do other things, did not tell me what I'm about to share with you. She appeared to be interested mainly in accessing control of my finances. Yesterday I learned that if a spouse dies leaving his widow with a P.O.D. on each of his savings accounts, with the house deed being in both names, the surviving spouse immediately gets these things and is not responsible for payment of the deceased person's personal and medical debts. Tennessee is not a community property state. When I found this out, I had already paid five-digit numbers of dollars and still had more bills coming in, demanding immediate payment. This morning I've had the freeing experience of telling-off two of the money-seekers. All they needed to get from me was my husband's date of death, with one of them requesting a copy of the death certificate. So ... they know ... but they don't tell us! Yes, this is what our health system has devolved into. It is big business ... and it's almost impossible to find a doctor who isn't owned by a corporation. Corporations have tentacles that reach into other corporations ... and there is a huge supply of people to initiate bills. So I've laid it out here, in the hope that what I've said here will help someone else whose spouse has recently died.
To end on a positive topic ... no, to have a new beginning of a positive topic, through all of this, the music kept me alive; I especially love watching the YouTube music videos of Beverly (Guitar) Watkins ... what a tremendous musician and personality; she passed a month or so ago, but her music lives on. Just Google her name and YouTube and my favorite video of hers is "Rock Me Baby"; it's done like you've never heard/seen before and it actually picks you up so wonderfully.
I'm interested in getting together with other musicians ... I've got the space at my house ... and my house loves to hear music. So does my dog :) He sometimes howls with music. Music has great healing energies. Music is the Universal language ... esoterically and literally ... those planets whirling around up there make music; and you may have noticed that when musicians are playing together, there is no racial strife, no worldly troubles, no politics, no negativity, just bliss :)
Peace and Joy.
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