My paralyzed, nerve-damaged, nearly-60-year-old son Colin Cudmore held his second holiday event — the first was on Christmas Day— yesterday, New Year’s Day, starting at 3 PM, in his new apartment (since August, after two years in a horrible nursing home); unfortunately, his nerve pain, always 24×7, and unpredictable, was elevated the entire time. However, we soldiered on. Here’s the relevant post, which I published this morning on caringbridge.org.

Look there for the whole story, especially of why he thinks the pain had elevated this time.

I’ll show some of the photos here, with a few comments.

 

Colin’s view of the screen, where four of us were present for the Rose Bowl game featuring IU football, an historic occasion.

Colin’s pain level made him want to not talk (since that ramps up the pain). But he couldn’t help himself, since he’s such an extravert. Here he is with his feet elevated, in the hallway across from his kitchen. Artist Sal on the couch, totally absorbed in the drama.

Also, Colin had rolled from the living room into that position in the hall across from the kitchen so that he could co-direct with Marita the preparation of the barbequed wings for which he had created three fabulous sauces beforehand.

Me? I was folded into the other end of the couch, in part, as always with me and football, wondering what all the fuss was about, though I have always recognized that my “problem” is both the incredible speed and complexity of the game and not knowing the rules! And yet, due to Sal’s tutelege, I was beginning to get an overall sense, and especially to pick up on the extraordinary power and precision of this year’s IU football team. The other team seemed lost in comparison. Final score: IU 38, Alabama 3.

Inside me however, another observation constantly threatened to blur what was going on in the Pasedena Rose Bowl stadium . . .

 

Yes, Bread and Circuses. Is that where we are now, again, and always? on planet Earth?

Oh Ann, forget your paranoid? preoccupations; let go for once! Stop noticing, for example, how criss-crossing chemtrails completely obliterated the sky yesterday morning, and again, even worse, this morning. Forget how the human race is catapulting into a brand-new reality, with its outlines, and scope likely emerging  over the next two years: 2026 to feature mostly breakdown of existing financial, educational, medical, business, media, and other top-down structures, and 2027 featuring breakthrough into brand new — hopefully decentralized, local local local! focus for everyone on planet Earth. Though breakdown and breakthrough will both contribute in both years, 2026 will feature more of the former, and 2027 more of the latter.

See Clif High’s new post, HOLDFAST!, for more on this way of thinking, which to me, feels basically correct, especially when I consider the astrology of what we’re in now, and what’s ahead.

It’s either that, folks, or technocracy, hive mind, transhumanism. The choice between these extremes is utterly inevitable, and if we are to successfully move into the former, at least a certain percentage of us will have to get and remain utterly centered, grounded, and conscious. What percentage? No idea. At least 20%, likely.

Meanwhile, there’s still somewhat of a backwards slog ongoing. A slog that, however, can yield precious gifts of reconnection with others. For example:

On the day before yesterday, New Year’s Eve, I got a phone call from my dear old friend Nancy, whom I’ve known since we were in our 20s, though we haven’t spoken since she visited here from Massachusetts, what was it, ten years ago? Not that we’ve cancelled each other. Far from it. As with other dear old female friends with whom I have spoken at length for the first time during the 2025 Christmas vacation, it was time for Nancy and me, once again, to check in!

And here’s the odd part. The night before I had been awakened from a dream of being with Nancy. I noted then that I would need to call her in the morning. But then dreamy Neptune dissolved that Saturn decision. Not only that, but I didn’t even remember the dream when she was the one to call me the next day! In fact, I only remembered the dream that evening, after we had spoken for 90 minutes.

So interesting, how this ongoing Saturn/Neptune situation in Pisces, working with Uranus in Taurus, is still finding me looping back, and resonating with extremely valuable and impactful personal relationships of the deep past, how they have shaped my body/mind/soul in this long long 83 years of living on planet Earth.

Not much time left before Saturn/Neptune both go into Aries, folks, and begin the ignition process to completely transform life on earth.

Oh, and BTW, I’ve already pointed out that 23-year old Fernando Mendoza, the IU QB, functions as a living archetype for his generation. Beautiful soul, works extremely hard at all that he does, and totally devoted as an individual, to both the divine and to all those with whom he comes in contact. Their “team spirit,” is truly that.

Another living archetype for this new generation is 23 year old Nick Shirley, the independent journalist who just lit up the internet with his investigation into the Somali fraud in Minnesota, that then sent sparks into investigating corruption in other states — Ohio, New York, Washington, among them.

So grateful for these magnificent young ones!

P.S. Just realized that because IU won the game with Alabama, it’s now been catapulted to semi-finals, to play Oregon. Oh geez, when?

Only eight days from now! I guess I’ll have to show up at Colin’s place for that one too. Who knows, if Indiana continues on its meteoric rise, I may have to watch so much football that I’ll actually learn something.