Happies and merries to you

December 11-20 (when I FINALLY finished it), 2004

Appropriate happies and merries to you for this time of year ~

Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Year’s Eve … Are there other holidays during December? Historically, people must have really been eager to cheer themselves up during the dark part of the year (at least in the northern hemisphere). “I'm really beginning to feel S.A.D., Martha. Let’s create a holiday.”

Before I tell you about me … What’s going on with you? What has changed? What milestones have you passed? What are your challenges and doorways? What opportunities are in your life? What has touched you? I’d love to hear from you.

As you may know, I wrote an update for the previous year and a half this past July 12. I very much appreciate those of you who replied to that letter, letting me know about you. I'm not going to repeat that information, so this letter will focus on the past little over 5 months.

So, here comes a review of the past half-year in the life of Michael.

RELATIONSHIP WITH ANTOINETTE:
I told you the story of my relationship with Antoinette last July. I love Antoinette a lot and have tremendous appreciation and gratitude for her. She has made a huge difference in my life. I also know that our being together has been right for us spiritually. We have important tasks to complete with each other for our spiritual development. The love I’ve received from her has been crucial to me, and I think that the love I’ve given her has been equally important to her. We do have differences that we need to work out, and I'm committed to doing what it takes to find resolutions to them. On the other hand, I also know that the main changes I need to make are in my own consciousness and my ability to be happy and successful in a loving relationship.

FRIENDS:
In the course of my work and my time at Unity Santa Fe, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, and I count many of them as friends and acquaintances. I made a new friend in September. Antoinette has had a friend, Dave, for over 10 years (could be 15 years). He came to visit Santa Fe and us from Chicago. I really liked Dave and now consider him my friend, also.

I acknowledge that I still miss my friends in the Seattle area and other places. I regret that I'm not better at keeping in touch with people who are far away and who aren’t involved with me in my activities. There’s an intention to consider for the coming year. (I write intentions instead of resolutions for the New Year.)

HOME:
I'm still in the apartment I had just moved into at the time of my July letter. I like it here and am finally really getting settled. However, I acknowledge that I'm also looking forward to moving somewhere else sooner or later. I have a vision of the place that I’d really like to live, and I'm working on manifesting it.

HEALTH:
My health has continued to be a primary focus. I'll start with the good news. I finally got some help with medical expenses and have been able to begin seeing a doctor about my prostate. As a result of some tests he had me take, we’ve concluded that I don’t have cancer – just BPH (a benign enlargement of the prostate). Now I'm on medication for it and expect my prostate to shrink. I’ve also begun working with Larry Clapp’s book Prostate Health in 90 Days. It’s clear to me, as he suggests, that my dental problems contribute to my prostate problems.

On the other hand, I’ve had some trips to the ER in the past 5 months before I was on the medication. Also, my dental problems are acute, and I need to find a way to take care of them ASAP.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me with prayer, energy healing work, kindness, encouragement, a variety of alternative healing practices, suggestions, and awareness of a program that has allowed me to get my medications for free. I'm finally heading in the direction of more vibrant health.

JOB:
I resigned from my job at Unity Santa Fe in early December. I had told Paula Langguth Ryan, a prosperity coach who I had a session with in late October, that I wanted to resign by November 28. It was actually a little after that. When I took the job 2 ½ years ago, I thought it would be a transitional job for a few months, maybe half a year. Then I just stayed. It wasn’t really my work, but it was comfortable and better than most jobs. However, I only worked 25 hours per week, with no benefits, which put me in a bind financially, especially with all my health problems. Eventually I began to feel like it was getting in the way of doing what I need to do for myself. I have nothing bad to say about the job, Rev. Brendalyn, or anyone else there. It just wasn’t my job any longer. I need more money, more flexibility, and health and dental insurance.

Now I'm open to creating other work that will serve me better. Consequently, I’ve just taken a class to become a public school substitute teacher. I have my interview in a couple of days with the Santa Fe PSD. That’s something I’ve considered doing for a very long time. It may be the flexible work that I need. Several people have told me that the subs in the Santa Fe PSD work as much as they choose to. Yet they can also not work when they don’t want to (for example, when I get an acting job, have a workshop to facilitate, or have some kind of appointment).

COACHING, FACILITATING, TEACHING, AND SPEAKING:
As many of you know, this is part of my real work. It’s taken me a long time to really get this together. I am beginning to move now, though. I've been facilitating a regular Eckhart Tolle and the Power of Now video group for a few months.

In 2005 I'll be facilitating more workshops, classes, and groups (both in-person and online), doing public speaking, doing spiritual, relationship, and life coaching, doing academic coaching for anyone (from high school through graduate school) who would like to experience more ease, serenity, and success in their academic work, doing abundance and prosperity coaching (who better than someone like me who’s experiencing a personal transformation in this area), and creating audiotapes for spiritual awakening, personal growth, and healing.

If you’d like to know about whatever I might be doing in these arenas, send a blank email to MichaelDelunoEvents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you’ll be on the mailing list.

MINSTRY:
I'm also preparing to resume my ministry - guest speaking on Sunday mornings and performing weddings and other ceremonies. I’ve begun identifying myself as an Interfaith New Thought minister (as opposed to a New Thought Christian). My ministry embraces Christian, Jewish, and other mysticism, New Thought, the Power of Now, A Course in Miracles, Buddhism, Sufism, Abraham-Hicks, and more.

If you’d like to keep track of what’s happening with my ministry, send a blank email to AwakeningNewsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you’ll be on the newsletter list.

PERFORMING, VOICE WORK, AND ARTISTIC DIRECTING:
I just went on a casting call for a TNT movie that will be shot near here beginning in January. It’s a Stephen Spielberg production, a 3-part miniseries called “Into the West.” I'll let you know if I get a part and when it will be on. The photographer said he thought I should be cast; we’ll see if the Casting Director agrees.

That has really inspired me to begin doing what it takes to do acting and voice work. There are lots of movies being shot in New Mexico, and we’re attracting quite a few more. Two more big ones are coming up soon. So, I'm looking for an agent.

I was just talking with someone about finally starting a God Only Knows What spiritual entertainment group in Santa Fe. She was enthusiastic about it, and that got me enthusiastic about it again. I know lots of performers now, so maybe it’s time.

And, finally, I just sang Christmas Sunday in Unity Santa Fe’s Christmas choir.

SANTA FE SPIRITUAL CINEMA COMMUNITY:
I'm still the coordinator of the Santa Fe Spiritual Cinema Community. We’ve offered a monthly Spiritual Movie Night for the past 2 years. After the video, we discuss spiritual messages or themes in the film. In July we also organized a group to attend the opening of “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” It included an appearance and Q&A with William Arntz, one of the filmmakers. (If you haven’t seen “What the Bleep” yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. It’s a film in which entertainment, mysticism, cutting-edge science, and spirituality merge into a message that can change our lives. See http://www.whatthebleep.com/ for more information.)

If you’d like to stay abreast of what’s happening with spiritual cinema in Santa Fe, send a blank email to SFSpiritualCinemaCommunity-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you’ll join the list.

If you’re a film professional (in any way) and would like to know about opportunities in spiritual cinema, especially in the Santa Fe area, send a blank email to SFSpiritualCinemaProfessionals-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you’ll be on the list for that.

WRITING:
I’ve been doing a little writing and will soon be doing more. I applied for a job with the Santa Fe Reporter as a movie reviewer and didn’t get it. I don’t know if I got my application in too late, if my reviews were too focused on spirituality and personal growth, or if there was some other reason. Anyway, I satisfied myself that I can write movie reviews that I appreciate and that would be valuable for me to read. I'm considering writing a regular newsletter with reviews of spiritual films. I'll let you know if I follow through on that.

If you’d like to read my newsletter, “The Heart of the Matter”, when I begin producing it again soon, send a blank email to TheHeartoftheMatter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. It’s about relationships, personal growth, spiritual awakening, and more.

OTHER WORK:
I'm continuing to do some home and pet care occasionally. I'll never do as much of it as I once did, and it just seems to keep coming to me. Perhaps I'll take on some contractors and mainly manage a business.

Additionally, I'm starting some other businesses as side work. Most of these are things I did as part of my job at Unity Santa Fe or as part of another job sometime, have done just for myself, or have done for free in the past. Let me know if any of them is of interest to you, and I encourage you to refer people to me.
Event management – doing the arrangements, publicity, and logistics for workshops, lectures, classes, and other events.
Writing for others – anything from ghostwriting a book to writing copy for a brochure or ad.
Desktop publishing – flyers for workshops, brochures, business cards, letterheads, etc.
Newsletter production – I'll create a newsletter out of your content.
Internet research – finding information on the internet.
The Personal Concierge of Santa Fe – any service that you might receive from a hotel concierge but without staying at a hotel (giving ideas of things to do or places to eat, making reservations, providing directions, picking up your dry cleaning, etc.). I'm hoping Antoinette will do this with me. She has a background working in a few of the best hotels in the country, some of them as a concierge. She’s excellent at the work.
Spirited Tours – both pre-designed and customized tours in northern NM (and eventually to other places).
Spirit Books, Video, and DVD – sales and rentals of spiritual books, spiritual cinema, and spiritual and personal growth programs.
Deluno Health Resources – providing some of the best health products on the market.
Affiliate programs – putting links to online businesses (for example, Amazon, the Sedona Method, Earthlink, L.L. Bean, and thousands of other possibilities) in my newsletters or on my web sites (when I have them) and earning a percentage of sales from people who click to the business from my link.
Editing.
Idea consulting – I'll help people come up with ideas that fit them for businesses, writing, films, etc. I already have hundreds of ideas that I don’t have time to do anything with and/or interest in following through on.

I'm also thinking about studying web design to create and manage my own web sites, and I may also do it for selected other people. We shall see.

I'm never short on ideas. I know that the things that are right for me will expand and the ones that aren’t will fade away.

SPIRITUAL:
Even though I’ve stopped working there, I'm still attending Unity Santa Fe – just not as compulsively as I was when it was part of my job. I'll also be visiting some other places occasionally (and, of course, speaking some Sundays at various churches).

PROSPERITY AND ABUNDANCE:
I'm in the process of a major transformation in prosperity and abundance consciousness. This is something I’ve been working on (as many of you know) for many years. It finally seems to be coming together for me. Significant recent contributions to that: Antoinette and her prosperity consciousness, Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer’s Creating Money that Antoinette was guided to give me, Abraham-Hicks and their book Ask and It Is Given, Lenedra Carroll’s The Architecture of All Abundance, my time with Paula Langguth Ryan (http://www.artofabundance.com/), and more. I am beginning to allow the flow of abundance into my life.

In the short run, though, until my new consciousness manifests materially, I'm still short of money and am open to any possible ways for it to appear in my life immediately. I’ve had a few manifestations already (some would call them miracles), and I'm open to more. If Spirit wants me to win Powerball this week, I’d appreciate it. Of course, that means I’d have to buy a ticket. No, it doesn’t necessarily. Paula taught me to expand my notion of possibilities. Someone could give me a ticket, or I could find one. Are there other possibilities?

OTHER AWAKENING, GROWTH, AND LEARNING:
I told you in July about my work with Greg Baer, which has been very significant to me. I’d like to do his training this coming February to be a professional Wise Man. We shall see.

I’ve also attended quite a few other events, mostly as part of my job at Unity Santa Fe. Some that stand out to me in the past 5 months: Paula Ryan’s abundance workshop, Ken Reid and Brendalyn Batchelor’s “What the Bleep – The Workshop,” and another darshan with Leslie Temple-Thurston.

I’ve been a somewhat regular participant in a codependents’ group and a Real Love men’s group. Those have been important to me.

Whatever books I read are important to me (or else I stop reading them). A few that I’ve liked a lot in the past 5 months (and that I recommend to you) are Greg Baer’s Real Love in Marriage, Byron Katie’s Love What Is, Gary Simmons’ The I of the Storm, Esther and Jerry Hicks’ Ask and It Is Given, Lenedra Carroll’s The Architecture of All Abundance, and Robert Perry’s Path of Light.

RECREATION:
Antoinette has made a tremendous difference to me in this area. When I'm alone, I tend not to go out and do fun things much. Together she and I have done lots of things. I didn’t talk about this in my July letter, so I'll tell you about some of the highlights of the entire past year.

We took some short trips – to Roswell (she has a strong interest in UFOs, and the UFO Museum was the primary reason for going there), to Taos (to see some of what we missed when she first visited in May, 2003 –especially the Taos Pueblo), to Bandelier National Monument, twice to Albuquerque (Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Old Town, aquarium, botanical gardens, zoo), and to Los Alamos (various museums). One burgeoning tradition we have is that we eat ice cream everywhere we visit – if it’s available. I realize there wasn’t any at Bandelier that appealed to us.

We went out to quite a few nice restaurants (and there are MANY of them in Santa Fe). Do you know that concierges are often given free dinners and passes to activities as part of their jobs? We ate a lot of great food at no cost to us other than the gratuity.

Some other events we attended for free were the Maria Benitez Flamenco Dance Company (both the internationally-acclaimed adult company and just yesterday the “new generation” – kids between about 8 and 17), the Chamber Music Festival, and the Christmas open house at the Governor’s “mansion” (which, in New Mexico, is nothing like my image of a mansion). There are a lot of great perks to being a concierge!

We also both like movies a lot, and so we saw loads of them – in the theaters, on video, and on TV. The new movies that we saw this year that were my favorites were “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” (which I saw twice and will watch again frequently when it comes out on DVD), “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” (on TV), “Miracle,” and “Shall We Dance?” I haven’t seen a lot of the movies that are up for awards yet. Just last night, in fact, Antoinette and I talked about how there are quite a few movies out now that we want to see.

We also became devoted to “Six Feet Under” and “Queer Folk” on video and are eagerly awaiting new episodes.

My favorite TV series are “Joan of Arcadia” (highly recommended), “American Dreams,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Everwood,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “Kevin Hill.” Those are ones I make it a point to record if I'm not there to watch them live.

On the other hand, I haven’t spent much social time with friends this year outside of church activities. Antoinette prefers spending time with just the 2 of us, so that’s what we’ve done. The time we spent with Dave is the only time I can think of that we did something with someone else. I'm a lot more social than she is (and a lot less than many people I know). I’d like to find some other couples to do things with occasionally.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR:
We in the U.S. had an election. You knew that, didn’t you? As usual, it didn’t turn out the way I would have preferred. I supported John Kerry, not because I especially liked him, but because I especially don’t like George Bush. (I saw a bumper sticker that I laughed about for quite a while. It said, “Ferme la Bush.” In case you don’t speak French, it literally means “close the mouth” and idiomatically means “shut up.” Interesting that Bush means “mouth,” isn’t it?) As you probably know, I would really have liked Dennis Kucinich to be elected President.

When Antoinette and I went to the Whole Life Expo, we both had aura photos taken. The woman who interpreted mine said that it showed that I'm an incarnated angel. (There are times when Antoinette would seriously dispute that, I think.) I don’t know if it’s true, and I did read a book by Doreen Virtue on that theme as a result. I like to imagine that it’s true. Maybe that explains why I often feel a longing to go “home” without knowing what or where home is.

One of my gifts to Antoinette for Valentine’s Day (I think) was taking her to see a lecture and film (“Touched”) presented by John Mack, Ph.D., who was one of the world’s foremost experts on alien abductions. She had read all of his books and was excited to meet him. I'm especially glad we did that because he was struck by a car and killed a few months ago.

NAMES:
No, I haven’t changed my name legally yet. The good news about that is that I’ve come to more clarity about what I want my whole name to be. It will be King Michael John Gabriel Dickerson Deluno. I'm still educating people about the pronunciation of my new last name. It’s del-OO-no, not duh-LOO-no. It means “of the One.” If you want to know the whole story about my name change, ask, and I'll tell you the meaning of each of my names and how they came to me. It’s all related to my belief that names carry a consciousness with them that not only affects us, but also others. Five of the 6 names have spiritual significance to me, and Dickerson is there for historical reasons.

APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE:
Thank you again to everyone (and there are many of you) who has made a difference in my life in any way. I greatly appreciate you all. I hope that I’ve somehow made a difference to you, too, and that I’ll continue to do so. If there’s some way I can do something that will contribute to your happiness, health, well-being, prosperity, or whatever, please let me know. I do pray for all of my family and friends regularly and hold you in positive, loving consciousness.

Invitation:
If you live outside of Santa Fe and have any interest in visiting here, I invite you to come on down (or up or over). It’s a wonderful place to visit with lots to see and do. As I said earlier, one of my new businesses is The Personal Concierge of Santa Fe. I'll provide all those services at no cost to my family and friends. If you need a free alternative to a B&B or a motel, I have a sleeper sofa. Otherwise, I can recommend places to stay in all the price ranges that are available here (anywhere from about $40 per night for simple and economical to over $1000 per night for elegant and extravagant). A lot of you have told me that you want to visit, and so far not many of you actually have.

IN CONCLUSION:
This has really been quite a year, hasn’t it? I didn’t fully realize that until I began writing it all down.

I invite you to join with me in holding the faith that life is wonderful, no matter how it may be appearing in any given moment, that everything is unfolding for the highest benefit of all beings, and that the only thing that keeps us from experiencing all of God’s abundance is our own consciousness. May we all eagerly step through the doorways that are appearing in our paths, knowing that what will appear on the other side will be magnificence.

Here comes 2005. What do you imagine it will bring? We all play the most significant role in that, you know. I encourage you to join with me in bringing love, peace, kindness, compassion, health, happiness, prosperity, abundant blessings, and amazing advances in awakening and growth to our planet.

In holiday spirits,
Michael