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Dusk, and a New Dawn at the Marina

Months passed quickly. For the group, it was a busy time, as they were caught up in the minutia of building the OzCom site. For me, it was a welcome respite from the strenuous travel and circumstance of the past year and a half.

One day during a busy time at my own company our staff manager Darlene came into my office and informed me that I had a visitor. I asked her who it was, and she shrugged her shoulders. I then put aside my work, and walked over to the receptionist area of our office in the huge Hacienda business complex. When I arrived, I looked around, and saw no one. Then, I peered over to the far side of the room and saw a woman sitting there quietly reading a magazine. It was Belinda Tam.

“Belinda how are you!” I called out.

“I’m doing great. You’ve got a real nice office here.”

“Thank you.”

“By the way, you can call me Liddy. That’s what everyone calls me.”

“OK Liddy.  So what brings you out to the eastern edge of Silicon Valley?”

“Well, I thought we should talk.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s see. How about if we take a little ride? I’m a little suffocated here with all of our deadlines pressing.”

“That works for me. Where would you like to go?”

“Let’s just see where the car takes us!”

“I like that!”

 

We headed west over the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, and out to the Marina district on the edge of the bay. That’s where I like to take visiting out-of-town friends. It is also a spot I go to recharge my energies – physical and psychological. It has one of the most spectacular views in the world, and if it weren’t too windy, we would have a beautiful sunset over the Golden Gate.

At one point, Liddy reached into her bag, scooped up the sandwiches we purchased at a local deli, and we shared a late lunch together on a park bench at the Marina Green. We pointed to the v-shaped group of pelicans just hovering above the water as they headed out to sea under the bridge. In the distance towards Tiburon, wind surfers were bouncing up and down on the white caps. It was, as usual, a glorious site.

Then we got up and went for a little stroll. We walked over to Fort Mason, which contains several very long red-roofed piers that have been converted into art and cultural centers, such as Greenpeace, the Gorbachav Center, and others. Liddy told me that as an artist she had been to art exhibits at Fort Mason often in the past.

As we walked back to the Marina Green, I thought about the fact that we had never discussed the circumstances surrounding “the Incident” at Masonic Auditorium six months earlier. I decided however that it was not the right time to bring it up, though I admit I was eager to know the details. Not two minutes after withholding those thought, Liddy broke the ice.

”I know you are still wondering what I was doing behind the curtain!”

“Well I have thought of it.”

“I might as well tell you,” Liddy said somewhat mournfully. She then turned towards me and took a deep breath.

“Ok, here’s what happened. A week before the incident, I attended a large gathering of techno artist at Masonic. There were “geeks and freaks” gathered there, as we like to say. About a week later, I was about to go out to do some painting in the Presidio when I realized that my brushes and drawing materials were gone. After a momentary panic, I remembered that I left it in a locker at Masonic a week earlier at the gathering. So I headed up Nob Hill to Masonic to retrieve my stuff.

After looking in several locations, I was able to find it. Since I had a bit of time to kill, I wondered around to look at the exhibits in the lobby. Then I drifted toward the back office to see what other interesting things were going on.

After a minute, I got lost in one of the hallways. Because I was afraid that the guards would think I was a prowler, I decided to leave the premises. Then I got lost again, until I found what I thought was an exit way. I backed into the door at the entrance to open it because my hands were filled with my art stuff. However, as I pushed in, some twine I used to tie my brushes together got stuck about five yards behind me. As I struggled to free myself, I noticed that my back was rubbing up against some heavy material; perhaps some sort of canvass. When I then heard a rumbling of voices, I dropped my stuff and stopped struggling with the twine. I then fell back a bit, and realized that I was caught inside the hallow of a huge curtain. When I then heard several peoples’ voices emanating from the other side, I tried to find an opening. I found one and forced myself to the other side.

 Well the rest is history!”

“So that’s what happened.” I said.

"Yes, that's what happened!" Liddy replied.

 

Liddy and I continued our walk, heading inland several blocks from the bay to Moscone Park -- a place I had often played basketball and tennis at over the years. After we took a lap around the enormous green at its center, we sat down in the baseball stands. In front of us, there was a softball game going on, and behind that was a game of rough and tough touch football, consisting of mixed gender teams.

No words passed between us for five minutes.

“You know Liddy, you might find this a little surprising, but what happened at Masonic is not the main issue that’s been on my mind.”

“Oh no? What is it then?” said Liddy.

“Well, what I really wanted to talk to you about is the Sisterhood.”

“Oh that! Well that’s the inspiration for my art, for my life … well… everything ..  everything!  It’s why I exist!”

“I can see that.”

Liddy then barreled right into it.

“I think my mother and Francine have explained it to you. There are so many things to say, but what I am focused on now is this technique we are practicing.”

“You mean the physical transformation?”

No, not that. That’s pretty far out there; probably best suited for the older members. What I’m trying to do now is integrate a new technique into my daily life that we call “consecration.”

I know that sounds kind of religious, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s more like a prayer; a self-offering to a Higher Power for the purpose of quickly attracting positive results. It is, in essence, a way of attracting the miraculous.”

Liddy paused to consider the matter. “I know; here’s a good example. A few months back I was about to teach a class at the Art Institute of San Francisco. In the past, I had some problems working my way through these classes. You know, people would arrive late; the individuals who showed up weren’t properly registered; and so on. So this time I decided to practice the technique of consecration for my next classes.

A few minutes before the class began, I quieted myself, and then intensely “offered it up” to the Higher Power -- in my case to what I call the Divine Mother. Then I let go of that intensity and relaxed. The only other thought I had was that I had faith that whatever the spiritual Force brought me would be for the best.

Well an hour into the session, I realized that everything was going perfectly. Not because I was doing anything differently than before, but because I was somehow had now garnered the cooperation of life.”

“I don’t quite follow.”

“Well, normally we have a degree of control over our own lives, our own selves; you know, the skills we bring to bear in a situation; the quality of our feelings and emotions; our level of personal organization in a work; and so forth. But we have little control over outside circumstances; i.e. what life brings on its own – such as a sudden requirement for a fire drill; or unexpected noise emanating from a construction site above the classroom. Well the idea behind consecration is to gain the cooperation of life – i.e. to insure that nothing untoward takes place. It also attracts extraordinary positive circumstance as well. Where life just works in our favor. Well, it turns out that is exactly what happened in the class. No one was late. Everyone was registered properly. No disturbances came from the outside. No fire drills or overhead construction! There was perfect cooperation from life!

But there was more. I noticed right from the beginning that people seemed happier. There just seemed to be more smiling faces in the class. No one had a grumpy or sour look. I also noticed that the students were eager to learn, and were very cooperative and involved as the lessons unfolded. Finally, there was this unmistakable calm in the room -- a palpable peace and serenity that I could feel permeating that place. It is hard to explain, but it was just so soft, serene, and still.

Well, that unexpectedly lovely atmosphere remained throughout the day. By the end of the class, the students were very pleased with the day’s proceedings, and, as a result, they gave me outstanding evaluations!

All in all it was was a wonderful day. I went home that evening light-hearted and feeling deeply fulfilled.

 

Liddy’s words pierced me deeply. I felt the profundity of her spiritual-like experience.

I then looked up and stared into the distance, contemplating the meaning of her words. All of a sudden, I heard a cheer as one of the touch football teams scored a touchdown. An athletic woman caught a long pass just beyond the flagged end zone. I then turned back to Liddy, took a deep breath, and spoke.

“Liddy, would you mind walking some more?”

 

We headed back to the bay and then once again traversed the length of the Marina Green. We sat down again, this time to enjoy the sunset behind the bridge and mountains. We rested there for almost half an hour, silently taking in the magical scene. For a long time, hardly a word was spoken. After a very long pause, Liddy spoke up:

“So what’s next for you? I heard that Excalibur is on the back burner.”

“Yes, it’s not a priority just now. Who knows where it will go. Just now we’re working on a few other things for Jason.”

“Jason. He is the mystery man, isn’t he?”

“Yes, I guess he is,” I replied with a smile.

“So what about you? What about you and the sisterhood, or is it “the Transformers” now? You people are doing some truly groundbreaking work. All of these ideas; you know, inner-outer correspondence, life response, consecration; plus all of that physical transformation business. It all seems so incredible!”

“Yes it is. But you know, there is something that is is going on that transcends even these things. How should I put it? There really is a new world being born. There is a fundamental change starting to take shape in the makeup, the fiber, the consciousness of humanity.”

“How so?”

“I really believe that we are evolving as a human race; especially in the last several decades. There is a new type of individual beginning to form. It is a little hard to explain. For example, already we are seeing people expressing higher emotions – such as greater compassion, greater empathy, and deep gratitude towards others. We are also seeing higher forms of thinking -- such as a willingness to embrace multiple sides of an issue; the emergence of more penetrating insights into matters; even spiritual-like intuitions and revelations of knowledge and truth. Along with the emotional and psychological developments, these supra-human mental capacities are becoming more common.

We are also seeing people taking a deep interest in personal change -- trying to learn the keys to their own and humanity’s progress and evolution. You see that people are trying to discard old, outworn habits; shed negative attitudes and beliefs; and are trying to become one and whole in the parts of their being.

And then there are those who are serious about consecration -- i.e., opening to the spiritual Force before engaging in activities, issues, and problems. And as a result of making these inner transition, they are seeing powerful, even life-changing results on the outside -- as negative circumstance suddenly disappear, and positive circumstances take their place. For a few, for those who are harbingers and inner leaders of this new way of living, they are witnessing a continuous life of the miraculous.

As a result of the changes that a core group of individuals are experiencing, we are beginning to move into a new evolutionary period. There seems to be a new type of humanity beginning to take shape. In essence, a new world is being born.”

 

Those last words reverberated in soul then as it does now. I remember the feeling I had that day, contemplating Liddy’s words about a new human existence and orientation. I vividly recall standing there contemplating these things as we watched the sun go down behind the Golden Gate.

Now I realize that even as I witnessed the end of that glorious day, I was also contemplating the possibility of a New Dawn on earth.