Voices of Courage – The Courage to Awaken the Wonderous Mind

Show Summary:
“In respect of grace and honor, the conscious mind is able to withstand and overcome anything. When obstacles (fear, doubt, shame or guilt, prejudices, trauma and pain, temptation and addiction, hatred, bitterness or resentment, racism and violence, delusions and aversion) appear, we must bare down on our conscious mind, bringing awareness and mindfulness into sharp focus. The inner mind is capable of reaching and achieving. The power cometh from within. Ponder and meditate, tune in/tune out, the wondrous mind shall see what truths are needed. The essence of the universe flows from within

Rachel Calix

Growing up in Los Angeles wasn’t easy. As a matter of fact, my odyssey into addiction, criminality and the prison craze, it all stemmed from the glitter of this lively city. My Mom & Pop, well they had very little time or energy to deal with five children; because the intense labor left them drained. My Pop succumbed to alcoholism, and this turned me into a delinquent and embittered child. From 1970-2017, I was an institutionalized scapegoat. The last four decades was spent in Folsom & San Quentin. Some folks would characterize these decades as the lost years. However, reading thousands of books, from non-fiction to prose, I consumed voraciously, as a way out from the violence and madness of mass incarceration. After 34+ years, the Board Of Parole Hearings, granted “suitability”, and in January of 2017, I began to live a separate reality from what I once had. In my mind, the abnormal was living outside of a prison, which is quite a paradox, because I had lost the concept of being truly free. The now moments is all that I will ever have, so I live in the amends spirit, trying to deliver the known and unknowns for the youth. There are some youth who will end up in the same hell hole, and only the likes of someone like Raphael can show how to crawl out from that funk. There can be only one way out, from the pain and trauma of mass incarceration. I found the truths through reading, writing and contemplation. There are reverberating moments from the past, taunting my soul, as a distraction from the mission of redemption and reconciliation for all the youth in the world, but in particular, those who have been overwhelmed. overexposed to the harsh conditions

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