I spend the afternoon at Sister Linda's watching the Cardinals beat the Falcons and eating Leo's Pazzeoli

The big photo is of my sister Linda in front of her mantel and her sculptures. My grandson Dante burned some paper in the fireplace and played videos and listened to his grandma, aunt, and her bf talk about the old days, dying, and other ailments. Dan came home from work and dozed in the chair as he went to work early.
I checked out Linda who is now thinking she will have to go to the neurologist to see if her problem is a pinched nerve causing her fingers to go numb. She fell hard about a couple of months ago and hit her head and may have done something to her neck. Seems more likely than anything else.
She wants to ignore it and pack up all her sculptures and books and furniture and move to San Francico where her daughter lives. I was concerned as I did not think she was well enough to handle all that, and told her she might do more damage to herself. My sister Linda is typical of a lot of seniors who do not want to find out the bad news about some of their ailments, but she may have put off going to the doctor as long as she can. She would have to leave Leo behind which is another reason she hesitates to move. Leo said for them to move back to Mexico and she could take her sculptures with her as they like statues down there. Linda is leary of that, I can see.
Leo shared his recipe for pazzeoli (sp) soup. It id wonderful, made with a hominy like corn he buys to the Mexican grocery stores as well as a special pinto bean they like better than just regular ones. You add a bone if you want for flavor and onions, garlic, and pepper. Corn is my favorite vegetable so I am going to make a trip to one of these stores to buy the ingredients.
Leo, Linda, and I shared stories about growing up on a ranch (ranchero) and chasing cattle for our fathers. His father was just as mean as our dad and would hit them if they messed up. He said he would get a tortilla and a piece of cheese to eat for the day, sometimes, as they were very poor down there, one reason he came to the states. He is lucky to have the status to be able to work. So far he still has a job. LInda cannot work because she is too old to find a job and now she has got this ailment, so the mortgage cannot be paid and foreclosure is in sight. She says she was one of those who borrowed money on her house and now she cant pay the payments because she is hurt. So is sure to lose the house.
I did have a good time with family and Linda cheered up a little bit before the end of the day. Such is the fate of the seniors if they should fall down, god forbid, and they often do, becoming shaky and stiff and trying to run around as though they were young instead of old. Linda said she was probably trying to keep up with a younger BF.

In "Soul Shift," Mark Ireland teaches us about the spirit world...

In keeping with trying to make the world of spirit more real, I am reviewing Mark Ireland's book called "Soul Shift." Mark Ireland was the co-author of a book about his father, Richard Ireland, world famous Phoenix psychic, called "The Phoenix Oracle." His father is shown with actress Mae West in the photo. This book was written not too long after his father died, and Mark did not do much with the psychic world until after 2004, when a monumental event occurred in his immediate family. As he describes it, it was a Saturday and his youngest son, 18, was going to go on a hike on the McDowell Mountain near their home. Mark had felt uneasy about the projected trip because his son suffered from asthma, but he had done these hikes before and reminded his father that his asthma had improved for at least 3 months due to a new medication and he had hardly been bothered with it at all. They probably both assumed that if he did get into some stress with it, his inhaler would take care of the problem.
As it turned out, he suffered from such a severe attack, hardly even realizing it, that his inhaler did not work at all. He and a friend started back down and he suddenly told his friend that he was seeing light all around them and needed to lie down. Up to then his friend said Brandon had even been joking! Once on the ground he quickly expired. His heart had simply quit from the lack of oxygen. In the meantime another group of hikers who had stopped because one of their members was having trouble with asthma came and immediately called 911 for rescue. It was too late. I remember readng about this sad event in the newspaper, and I was thinking then that Phoenix appeared to have completely forgotten Mark's father, Richard Ireland, who was one of the most amazing psychics I have ever seen. I puzzled for months after seeing his show here in a place on Central Avenue. How could he do what he did I asked myself over and over. This was a case of having trouble believing what I saw him do with my own eyes. I could not help but think that Mark had perhaps turned away from his father's psychic activities so did not perceive how much danger his son was going to encounter in this hike.
So when I saw this book "Soul Shift" at the Phoenix Library today, just out, I got it, as I figured the soul shift phrase referred to what Mark Ireland has experienced after a beloved son died. I am finding the book fascinating, worthy of more comment than I can possibly write here in one session, but I believe that if we in Phoenix even half way understood the amazing feats of Richard Ireland and other psychics we would not have so much trouble believing the spirit is real. In his book Mark Ireland says that his father was probably the most amazing, 'shocking' psychic of the 19th century, and I think he is right. I tried to write about his father in my journal and I thought some of what he did was too shocking to keep revealing. I didn't think readers were going to be able to take it in. I had to conclude that most of us live on a very mundane level, not even realizing how psychics like Richard Ireland were able to move freely between this sphere of reality and that of the spirit.
And he started exhibiting these extraordinary gifts when he was 5 years old, when the nurse found him bouncing a ball against the wall and catching it with his eyes blindfolded that had just been operated on. He explained to her that he could still 'see' the ball. He thought everyone could see as he could. Mark Ireland says that he never saw his father make a mistake when he was reading off the serial numbers of dollar bills audience members would hold in their hands. He could 'see' the numbers blindfolded and on stage. That is what he did the night I saw him. Mark says he used to play games with them and he could 'read' off a whole deck of playing cards blindfolded and never make a mistake. His demonstrations of ESP left audience members who came in skeptics stunned, unable to understand how anyone can do what he did. Then he would go on and startle people with his ability to tell what was going on in their lives in detail. Mark said it was a little disconcerting to have a father that always 'knew' everything. Once he asked Mark what gift he would like for his birthday. Mark told him he would like this certain balsam model airplane, and his father told him to reach up on the shelf, and there this same model was. Richard Ireland had already bought the gift before hearing what his son wanted. Mark says he does not know how he did this, whether he put the idea in his mind or what. Most of us don't have fathers like Richard Ireland.
Yet, he developed an addiction to alcohol, probably from doing his shows in a nightclub setting and being feted and wined and dined by celebrities. After his son died, Mark was able to speak to his father who told him that he felt he had neglected him. So in spite of his great gifts he was just human, too. He had faults and failings. But he had been there to greet his grandson, Brandon, when he passed, and he told Mark that he would look after him, which was a great comfort to him. He said this was a second chance to do for his grandson what he had not done for his son.
I do think our world needs to study and think a great deal more about what happens to us when we die, what happens to anyone, including the ones who have been conceived but are not yet born. There are some amazing stories of people like Richard Ireland whose purpose for being born with such gifts seemed to be to teach the world more about the spirit that does not die.