Recently one of my friends mentioned to me that he attended his 25th High School Reunion. He was surprised how few showed up. Thankfully, two of his teachers were still at the school…..and they said, that as time goes on, more and more former classmates come back. My friend said to me, “Jennifer, one thing’s for sure….for me, the good memories have been heightened with age, and the bad ones seem to have fallen by the wayside.”

For many, time is a strange healer. It can take our years, and heal our wounds at the same time. My high school days seem closer to me now then they were ten years ago. How can that be, you may ask? Well perhaps because I now can realize how important those memories are. I still have a good relationship with a couple of my high school girlfriends….we always send birthday and Christmas cards…we never stay out of touch for too long. Times may change, and even the school itself, but graduation year a group of people shared something in common, that only those within that group can understand……kind of like a team that wins a championship……they too are bonded forever.

So how about you? Do you ever wonder what happened to the members of that class you graduated with? Have you kept up any friendships over the years? Have you been back for a reunion? One website I would like to pass along, where many classmates can find each other is: Classmates.com. Check out your school….see who you can re-connect with. Many of our fellow students may have spread across the four corners of the world……but luckily the Internet has a way of bringing them back together. Yeah, I know…..we may not be the same people we were in high school, but like that championship team, we share a history.

I like to look at reunions as a way to rekindle the past……and using it as a scope to chart the future. A wise man once said, how can you know where you’re going, if you’ve forgotten where you’ve been? Our lives are laden with relationships we’ve had….some we may choose to forget, but others we may want to revisit.

Say hello to the past,
love, Jennifer
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

The past couple of months has been a time of change for me. I have made my music available through a new arrangement with MP3.com, I have started a new radio show called “Walk of Life,” and after several years with AOL I have moved my e-mail correspondence to Hotmail. Through all this, I have learned never to have all your eggs with one company. Quite a few changes, huh?

When I started all this it was always my goal for my music and words to be available for free. Now I know artists and writers need money to survive….thankfully, over the past few years many of you have embraced my music and writings. Nevertheless, I have always thought about a person with little means having the chance to access music and words for free. Knowledge should never be totally based on money. Finally, technology and the Internet are coming to grips with that perspective. For me, MP3 gives me the ability to allow the whole world to access my work, and allowing the listener to decide whether they want to purchase or download, while paying me per listener.

Where will this Jennifer Avalon Newsletter end up? Hopefully, it would be wonderful to broadcast a live, or taped, video streamed program from my livingroom. Impossible, you may ask? Within the next 18 months, it may become a reality. How about that? Getting invited through the Internet for dinner at Jennifer’s house around eightish? (ha!) I would love to have you there:)

Each essay, every week, will now be available at the “Walk of Life” radio station, which includes past essays, music, and hopefully soon, a little poetry to go with it. For me, very new beginnings. A great way for me to extend an open hand.

Cheers,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

The most powerful expression in the world is the open hand. It represents sensitivity, love, strength, and compassion. When the hand is open, the soul is revealed. It has the ability to give, as much as it takes.

When a child is born, it seeks protection, love and care. It looks for someone to show it the way. The parent’s open hand can provide what’s needed. Only when the hand is closed is damage done. During the turmoil of the teenage years, the mind seeks out understanding and has the longing to belong. When the teenager goes astray, the open hand can help heal the wounds and show the correct path to continue. As we seek out a partner to share life with, we look for someone who understands how we see the world, and the accomplishments we would like to make. Hopefully, we find the open hand that can help us along the way. When we ourselves become parents, we must always remember to reach out our hands to the ones that we love.

Friends, brothers and sisters, exchanging daily handshakes, sometimes not realizing the power of expression. The human hand can give so much love, and deliver so much pain. Only when we open our hands do we truly know what it is to be alive. The lines across our palms tell many stories……the history of our lives written on our hands.

Isn’t it amazing…..could it possibly be that when we pass on, the first thing that is said to us is, “Let me see your hands?” My my…..what a story each hand can tell. The power of the open hand is born with us……and leaves with us. No two hands are alike…..but each one can change the world.
The open hand…..the open heart…..the eternal soul…..

may your hands stay open,
love,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

These days many of us travel around as a sort of communications center. We have cell phones, beepers, laptops, etc. Being cut off from people has become a choice. In the not so distant future the Internet will freely stream through our car radios, picking up signals from all over the world. Going mobile has its responsibilities, but we can never say we can’t be reached.

Where will all this end up? Who knows? A friend recently shared with me a dream that she had regarding the future. She said, “Jennifer, I had a dream last night where I was walking down the street with a robot, carrying on a conversation, and all of a sudden the robot said, “Hey look! There’s a McDonalds! Would you care for a bite?” While heading towards the McDonalds, I overheard two more robots commenting as we passed by, “There goes another stupid human!” All of a sudden my friend woke up with a look of terror on her face. The thought of hanging out with robots gave her a kind of eerie feeling. I guess that’s taking going mobile to an extreme, but, aren’t these communication tools that we use kind of mini-robots? Electronic instruments that we utilize daily that can and probably will be enhanced over time.
I’m sure there will be many more technological advances coming down the pike, and yes, with each one we have to adapt, but the speed at which information will travel will be extraordinary. With all this there is responsibility, and hopefully we will put these innovations to good use. Where wires were once necessary for us to communicate across long distances, now satellites pick up our signals from just about anywhere, and connect us half a world away. The beauty of all this is that the barriers between people and the distance of time and space are shortened. I pray that mankind uses this to the best of its ability. The more we understand each other, the better off we will be.

Earth calling,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Healing is a process…..it involves Faith, Planning, and Execution. Faith involves belief and prayer. Planning is the map to follow. Execution is the action.

The following are my thoughts on what is needed for a person to ask themselves at the doorway to health, especially if the illness is life-threatening. Here are some of the tools I would use:

1) I would ask myself, “Do I want to live?” Strange as it may seem, it may be surprising how people can lose the will to live.

2) During the healing process, I would be careful of any negative thoughts I was either taking in, or putting out. Energy is like breath…..the caliber and the content of that energy can make a vast difference.

3) You’re never too old. Can you believe that some people think that after a certain age they have no right to live? I recently overheard a conversation where a young teenager said to a man in his seventies, “Hey Pops, will you hurry up and die so there will be some money left for me for social security?” The elderly man replied, and rightfully so, “Up yours!”

4) I would tell the people I love that I love them. It’s just amazing how many of us never say I love you….we just assume that the other person knows. A friend of mine who was having surgery told me that his father came to visit, stuttered, and said, “If anything happens to you, I will stick my head in the oven!” That was the best way my friend’s father could say I love you. My friend replied from his hospital bed, “Dad, I love you too.” Upon hearing this his father said, “Son, men don’t say I love you to each other.”

5) I believe, overall, healing does not involve the physical…..it involves everything else. To heal, to want to live, involves drive and determination. The will to live rises beyond our bodies.

6) Last but not least, the soul and the mind must interlock and become one. The life force is the energy between the core, which is the soul, and the mind, that is the home of thought. The body is the shell that we use here on earth. For the body to heal, the energy between the soul and the mind must stay strong.

My final thought on all this is that miracles can happen. The unexplainable does occur, but it’s nice to give it a helping hand…….

To Life……
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

The highway is the fast route to the destination of choice. As we cruise along the highway we look down and see the images of unique little towns that have their own kind of charm, in a blur. The highway is one of our express lanes through life….a road that increases the speed of time and distance.

Recently on a trip to London I discovered how important the difference is between the highway and the backroads. As many tourists love to visit the sights and sounds of England’s capitol, as I learned, the real charm of England lies on the backroads. A tour guide mentioned to me, “They all want to see Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace, but to really experience England and its people one has to take a trip about fifty miles outside of London….that’s where the magic begins.” I guess the same can be said for many USA cities. While each has its charm, the surrounding communities also have much to offer. In this society, where we seek out the highways, many keys to experiences and successes await us on the backroads.

Tom Scholz of the rock group Boston, is considered a little eccentric and off-the-cuff, but this former MIT graduate left his trademark on the sound of the guitar, and how music is recorded. Scholtz, you see, is one of those geniuses that refuses to take the highway of life…….he seeks out the end of the rainbow. As one band member mentioned in regard to Tom’s work ethic said, “Tom is one of those people who tries things a hundred different ways. He may fall flat on his face 98% of the time, but that 2% is where miracles occur.” Tom, I guess, rarely takes the highway.

In our lives we choose, many times, when searching out solutions, the highway, the road that everyone takes. And then, we wonder why we lose track of what it is we had set out to find. The backroads may not be the fastest route, but, because it is the road less taken, you may find treasure “in them there hills.” Yes, we too may not be successful 98% of the time, but, along the backroads we just may find that magical 2% that can change our lives.

Take the backroads,
love,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

I find it interesting that people who are successful in life always seem to have certain similarities. Success, most times, comes in three stages. The first stage is faith, planning, and hard work. The second stage is breaking through the walls, learning, and hard work. The third stage is momentum, connecting to what is needed, and hard work. At some point a strange thing starts to occur. Something I call, “The Current.”

What is The Current? It is a wave that builds over time, and eventually it lifts you up, carries you along, and helps you do things you never thought you could accomplish. Some of our greatest successes take place when The Current is in motion. The connection to The Current is within all of us…… all we have to do is to plug in, provide the necessary work, and lo and behold, something miraculous happens.

Athletes talk about “Being in The Zone,”….many, before they either start a race or play a game, just know they are going to succeed. It’s almost as if they already know the outcome. The Current is that powerful.
How does one get to The Current? Let’s put it this way…..when an airplane taxis down the runway, it builds up speed and takes off. At first, it experiences turbulence, but at a certain altitude, it enters cruise level….that’s where, once airborne, The Current takes over. We, too, seek to be airborne in life. The place where our wings can soar through the air.
Religions have talked about this Current through the centuries, using different metaphors and phrases. To Christians, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. To Jews, it is God. To Muslims, it is Allah. To Buddhists, it is Buddha….. many mentioning a sense of what we put out, comes back in one form or another.

Perhaps The Current provides the energy for what we have projected. There is something very mysterious about this place called Earth. Probably, there is more we have to understand than what we know. Mystery is all around us. Maybe if we understood the tools that are available to us, and how to implement them, life would not look so complicated. I believe there is a purpose for us being here, and The Current is there to provide knowledge and motion.

So flows the current,
love,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Can you believe there are New Yorkers who have never visited the Statue of Liberty? I’m one of them. The closest I’ve come to Lady Liberty is a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. Hopefully, I can rectify that this year. Many of us believe that the sights are all outside of our range……there’s nothing in our own world, and we have to travel to someone else’s. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We walk around our towns, walk past places of great beauty, sometimes without even batting an eyelash, taking it all for granted, and thinking that it’s nothing special, until a relative or a friend comes to visit, stops us in our tracks, and points out the wonder under our own noses.

Movies are full of famous cities of the world, leaving many with a feeling that their town doesn’t quite measure up. Each place has its own character…we just have to recognize it. It could be a small museum, regional theater, a local store, or, a place of Worship. Priceless memories are available if we only open our eyes.

Each week I try to write down something special about my town in upstate New York. Near me is Hyde Park, the home of President Roosevelt, and the Culinary Institute, a school where some of the best chefs in the world are trained. Also near me is West Point Military Academy, with halls of history. I have tried to not forget what is available for me to see and discover in my own neck of the woods. It’s not been easy….I too take things for granted. So try this week to sit down and write what is special about your town or area. Why does it always have to be that strangers sometimes see things before us? No town is too small…..they may not appear in the latest hit movie, but they are not diminished in any way of their importance.

I recently had a conversation with a man who runs the concessions for minor league baseball teams of the Chicago White Sox through the South. He said to me, “You would not believe how important minor league ball is to some communities. The whole town comes out on Saturday night and cheers and hollers as if it’s a World Series game. There’s never an empty seat in the house.” Broadway producers encourage the development of regional theaters, so that they can look for the next hit play. Towns matter…..they contribute on a grass roots level, that one day rises to center stage. I’m sure you have your own stories of how someone came out of your town or area and went on to touch the world. Each person and each town contributes…we all just have to notice.

Enjoy your town,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

From the day we are born we take in information. We develop, we mature, and hopefully, find out over time what works and what doesn’t work for us. The Trance is a state of mind we fall into when we are doing something that we consider mundane. It could be licking five hundred stamps on letters, hammering nail after nail, or spacing out during a boring book. Sadly, The Trance eats up valuable time.

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who told me a story about The Trance. Joe used to leave his house at the same time each morning, stop in at the coffee shop and head off to work and do the same process in reverse at the end of the day. Joe said, “Jennifer, it’s really strange. When I open the door and head off to work the time in-between is a blur. Each day that blur becomes wider. Strangely, one day the train went out of service. I snapped to, and boarded another train and resumed the blur. This is all fine and dandy Jennifer, but I’ve done this for 18 years.” The Trance can get a hold of us…..not only take away time, but devalue our moments.

Perhaps Life gets so overwhelming sometimes, that there is only so much that we can take, so we “zone out.” But that zoning out can be costly. Oddly, during periods of crisis or turmoil, The Trance disappears, and all of a sudden we feel more alive. Why is that? Do we take Life so much for granted that only when it is threatened, do we feel more alive?

I look at The Trance as a virus. Something that anybody can catch. Is there a cure? Sure…..it’s called Awareness. Whenever one sees or feels the Trance coming on, think about what you want to accomplish that day. Flood your mind with as much positive thought as possible. For me, one of the best ways I keep away The Trance is to change my schedule and try to get away once in a while. When we are busy, it’s one thing……but The Trance is something entirely different. To find out if you have had The Trance, or currently have it, ask yourself this: How quick has the past ten years gone by? and, do many moments stand out? For some yes, for some no. Think forward of the next five years, and try to accumulate memories that will last a lifetime. The Trance can never invade the shield of awareness.

Keep awake,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Sometimes we totally underestimate the influence we have on someone’s life. We forget that our words and actions are being watched and absorbed by others. Members of our family, friends, and yes, pets, see us at different times during the day, and react to what they think we are saying or doing.
The more we are aware of the position we have in certain people’s lives, hopefully the more responsible we become. A child at the dinner table watches what we eat, how we eat, how we behave, and what we do once we finish the meal. After a few weeks it’s not uncommon to look across the dining room table at a child mimicking every move we make.

The same can be said for friends. We influence them, they influence us. During the week we receive a phone call from a friend in need…..asking us, “What do you think I should do?” It’s at these points we see the scope of how our contributions can have an impact on someone else’s life.

Our pets….my my…..do they watch us! They know when we eat, what we eat, what we like to watch on television, what time we get up, what time we go to bed. For me, I sometimes catch my little dogs having a powwow, wondering what concoction I may cook up for dinner that night. Dogs sometimes can be the worst food critics….if the chow is not “up to par,” you will be notified!! But seriously, the circle of love that can evolve in a relationship with a pet can be priceless.

We constantly underestimate what we give to others. It’s easy to forget in our busy lives the impact our words and action have, but, they do. The more we are aware of this, the better we are for ourselves, and for others. There is not a part of the day where we can’t contribute something worthwhile, be it at the office, at home, or during recreation. We underestimate our power. We all make a difference…..even when we don’t think we do.

Life is a shared experience,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon