Grandfather Teaching: Look Within

Rachel Gunn by Demao Seven shot January 2015.

Looking for a Tarzan is an admission of powerlessness. Predators look for admissions like this to feed off. "Will you be my Tarzan?" is the question a solid father will sniff out as the way of a predator, and a perpetrator looking for weakness and teach his daughters the way of the Hunter. Many a daughter has become canon fodder for wicked hunters. Many hunters of souls have lost their lives hunting for a daughter trained by a father to begin to become a Woman of Power... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/01/18

In this forest, Sara Jean Underwood asked, Will you be my Tarzan. Many would say, yes, without thinking out the depth and the commitment the task requires... - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

She Lived 90 years!

Old Woman, Long Life: How? 

Claire Trevor was an American actress. She appeared in over 60 films, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo, and earning nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty and Dead End. She also received top billing in Stagecoach. She had 3 husbands and one son. She lived between these two dates: Mar 08, 1910 - Apr 08, 2000.

I wonder what death, the afterlife, birth and living was for her as an old woman, now, as a baby and how she fared as an old woman! I always wonder about those things as I age through the 12 stages of Life!

Death, like Life. is a dance you dance, or dance into or dance with. What do you do with Death? Is your life existence, driven by purpose, or an unfolding prophecy? What is it like to simply be ordinary, or crude? I don't know, but I have known and know plenty like this. Truth is I am more interested in people living in places within themselves filled with powers embracing those powers and imparting unto others!

How these questions are answered orchestrate how one dreams, thinks, believes, has sex, and conducts themselves in relation to who they are and who others are in their own lives!

How do you live? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 11/18/18 

Claire Trevor, Belgium-French American actress.

God, she was elegant, and obviously from a bygone era when elegance, not crudeness, was a gift to the soul, and fundamental to the essence of a woman's bearing!... It is harder to impart this sensibility into girls today for reasons their parents and their adults need to uproot themselves... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/16/18 

Claire Trevor, Belgium-French American actress b. 1910 !!!!

Claire Trevor, actress, lived a long time! She was 90 when she died. She would never have crossed the color line for love. She would have faded into contempt, loss favor and jobs. Her marital years would have lent no understanding in her favor had she... ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/18/18

ELDER TALK: understanding

Introspection evolves around stillness the way stillness requires attentiveness to surface within a person learning to learn from themselves about the worlds within them. It isn't a revolutionary process; it is transformative within the quiet of Being. 

"Who am I alive?" is a question to ask in these moments of knowing. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [September 28, 2018] 

Lizard. This is an Oriental Garden Lizard © Joby Varghese‎ 

taken in Masinagudi, Taminadu, India, May 2018.

Joby Varghese Photoarts

The hunter revolves around the cycles of life-death-resurrection. The Western reef heron captured by Joby Varghese tells the story. This was taken in Muzhuppilangad, Kerala, India in February 2017.

Will You Give So Others Live?

Eartha Kitt lived from January 17, 1927 until December 25, 2008. 

During that lifetime she spoke out against the Vietnam War and was blackballed for a decade in the States. In your lifetime what will you stand for, die for, live for? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

Eartha Kitt spoke her negative views on the war in Vietnam at a White House luncheon, she was effectively blacklisted and didn't work in the States for fully a decade. "What will you stand for? Without that answer how do you live to die in the end? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Look to This Stage.

Sharon Stone in her middle years is more dynamic of a person, of a beauty than in her youth. As tremendous as that was growth made her force grow into its own beauty. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5/22/18

Older women like Crystal Taylor make discovery an accomplishment! What that is, is the discovery! If you are a young man exploration begins with curiosity, growth with a need to know. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5/22/18

Abstract within Common Knowledge

It is strange the illusions we swear by believing them to be truths.

Image captured by William Ukoh, 

"If one stands still to know, to hear and listen within there are stories within us to comprehend, and maybe share. Piercing our veneer opens the roads to truths we might not see right now!" - Gregory E. Woods, September 29, 2016

Tormented Story, Released Spirit!

Note to Rachel Gunn:

I took the time to place your narrative in a correct form, and closely read your story. There is a profound shift in perspective you traveled through to become and hold a perspective this honest. There is a lot felt in my Being from you to me. You trick all who were, and are taken by how you present yourself, but I had mastered a trick my parents taught me, and looked for a revelation.

We all ache to tell our stories. Yours requires attention to detail an aroused man cannot grasp with clarity... There is a lot in your story, and out of habit I will study your words. Maybe, I will share what else I have learned from you. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (9/30/18)

Rachel Gunn over the decades... has a story to tell.

Story of Rachel Gunn:

OK, It's been a few weeks since I vented so here I go. Not that anyone is going to read this long ass shit. I posted the center pic on Instagram today which is a modeling picture when I was around 35 years old. So a guy commented on the pic what he thought was a compliment which said Wow, you must be 20 years old there. So beautiful". 

Maybe he thought it was a compliment, but to a 43 year old woman as myself it's not, because instantly it saddened & angered me. It's essentially saying that "Wow, I looked so good when I was younger, but I'm not 20......I'm 43". The reality of it is that in the middle picture I was around 35 and it is a modeling pic so yeah, it was probably airbrushed. The picture on the far left. That is really what I looked like in my twenties when I was 25. Yes, I looked really different. I was an ugly duckling & bullied & teased for the way I looked. The picture in the middle is 35, and the picture on the far right is from a few weeks ago, the age I am now, age 43, no airbrushing. I don't airbrush my selfies. This is me. 

I put a lot of work and time and money into trying to improve myself. I have jogged thousands and thousands of miles over the years, spent thousands and thousands of dollars on plastic surgery, eat well, try to live a healthy lifestyle.. basically doing all I can to try to maintain what I have & to improve myself. It saddens & disgusts me that this society, especially this country celebrates youth so wholeheartedly & makes getting older, especially in women, seem like something to be ashamed of. You don't know how many times I've been made to feel bad for the age I am, for getting older, how many times I've been insulted because of my age, how many times I've been made to feel like I shouldn't be able to do the things I want to do because I am too old, the opportunities & doors that close because of my age. 

Why in other countries is aging celebrated and the elders respected while here women are made to feel like they are washed up and should just pretty much die already. Not everyone has the opportunity to grow older, unfortunately; so shouldn't aging be something to be thankful for? 

For the past 20 years I've been on this endless quest for perfection trying to attain these unrealistic beauty standards just so I'll maybe, for once, think I'll be at peace with myself, & then I'm reminded again that: "No, I'm not 20, that I'm getting older and that eventually the heads will stop turning & nobody will notice me anymore." That is something I have to come to peace with. Our faces, our bodies, our outsides all eventually deteriorate no matter how hard we try to fight it; but our insides, our soul, our spirit, that is what remains infinite & lives on into eternity. It would be nice if this world wasn't so shallow, if more people could look beyond the outer shell into what lays beneath, but realistically that is not how it is. Therefore, not only myself, but many women & men will ride on this endless roller coaster to attain the ideal embodiment of perfection. Honestly, as much as the insults hurt regarding my age, I wouldn't want to be 20 years old again. I have fought so hard to be who I am today. 

I hold wisdom my 20 year old self knew nothing about & my legacy will not be the mask I show to the world, what you see on Facebook, but my beautiful children, these special beings I created who I love more than anything & am so proud of; the connections I've made over the years, people I've made feel better: my spiritual being. That is real life, not bodies & faces & beauty, & the sexuality that society abuses & I myself bought into. So try to remember to honor & respect the fact that we all do age & to realize that getting older doesn't have to be a bad thing, but a beautiful thing to be applauded. I'm not just going to sit in my room & curl up into a ball & rot away because I'm 43 years old. 

Sorry. Everyone is unique & beautiful in their own way, despite weight, looks, age, sexual orientation, etc. So next time you insult someone because of their age or looks or only hold those you think are physically beautiful in high regard, remember you are not only hurting the other person but yourself; for you are missing out on the true meaning of what life is & that is having heart & seeing others for what is on the inside. I wish I wasn't so hard on myself, and could see myself how I see others, but I can't. I will lose my looks, but I will never lose my heart, that will never perish. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of that. Then maybe one day, maybe I'll be at peace. Yeah, it's cheesy. So what. lol. 

Sara Gunn 

March 23, 2018

Rachel Gunn, as a nun, in a photo shoot with D.W. Enterprise Images, LLC. 

photographer Wade Edwards, in St. Louis. April 24, 2018.

We are all intrigued by Nuns, who have taken sacred vows, who are seeped in dark secrets contrary to their vows. All the questions we have are answered by what we deny being cognizant of... Sometimes, we are our own lies... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/30/18

SEEN in the interior of the Soul. . .

The outstanding is astounding! In women seeing themselves in the admiration from men is a value system. In fact, memories stirred by looks means something adheres to what people value: worth. Are beautiful women observed, or their beauty perceived? Do beautiful women believe in the ideal from those who admire them, or lie about how important it is to be admired for beauty? Are we wrong needing Beauty, or women needing to be seen as beautiful?

Simple questions, but at the beginning of puberty the question is raised by the consciousness of general society. It is our parents our validation should come from, or at least, the form of family once held that status. Now, with Instagram baby sitting children, and informing them value has become a vague sense of being accepted by strangers, by people a child will never see face to face. Ain't that some shit? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/28/18

naked. Marilyn Monroe.

Art as Woman.

"Modeling style and modeling clothes can be the same, but more often is not because those who try do not know they have to develop the abstract with the practical application of beauty and intelligent forms of analysis to produce a better feel to establish what can be, or is beautiful!..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/25/18

Elizabeth Ashley photographed by John Darko Chapman titled 'The Widow',

body paint by Jon Jon Loveless. (Sept. 11, 2016)

the Womb has Power!

Michelle Lewin, fitness model!

Beautiful women, who command are more easily misunderstood as being powerful because drawing attention to themselves by the force of their essence can be disguised as vanity, or self-absorption by any number of men, unable to see beyond need, or lust. It is distracting the illusion of Beauty, but enforced as a presence in the Medicine teachings; it becomes a tool, a shield, and a weapon!...

There is more, but this medium typically is over-populated by undeveloped people foreign to the esoteric or the way of the Warrioress distinct from the Warrior's Way. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/9/18

"Mirrors have a way of seeing into self. If you stare in one with the least amount of light surrounding you deep into your eyes you will see someone, or something that will startle you!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Old Wisdom.

Dark and forbidden by John Santerineross

Self Betrayal by Gerbie Pabilonia 

posed by Sahara Isidro Perez.

The chambers of thought from within climb over and above doubt in one's self only by choice. It is always a choice. Choice makes its way into a path we follow, or create. It is magic the way this works for the good, but the tragedies otherwise coming from bad choices unleash our shadows into the awareness of others. Shadows and light. They are calling us to ourselves. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/12/18

shadow of a woman.

Deal with Strength.

That is not true. There have been moments I have regretted being kind. I remember some of them. That kind of pain in the realization later released me from something holding me against the presence of clarity, as a place across from Power. These two, Clarity and Power, co-exist, or fly away from each other. What directs them is Will. What is needed in spiritual quests is balance, not striving towards a utopia, or fulfilling a glib statement stating, "You will never regret being kind."

Development is a spiritual quest linked with what the intellect and emotions need to live in a body aware of where one is in relationship to all Life. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/31/17

THREE

Judging by High Standards 

At the start of womanhood are supposed to be women with deep knowledge in girl's lives! Without their instruction, their influence, or the sense of their bodies as perceptive as their eyes; girls become less than in the estimation of what a real woman is in the context of becoming her authentic self! It is not only the beginning that suffers; it is the middle passage before the end of life. If it is bound, enslaved this middle passage of one's life, the new woman's daughter(s) will fail to reach the high points. 

But, none good comes to the surface if girls are told: "A wet pussy and an empty pocketbook don't go together." This is the failure of old women. 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Sept. 9, 2017 

 Damn, She Got A Phat Ass! was all most would say. Others wanted to see her face, look in her eyes to see what is there, or isn't! The latter were becoming men. Let this teach your sons. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/9/17 

Teach in Life.

Who said those words? It is important to know. People's stories are important and to those needy the most, and those close to the person who reveals him or herself by word, and work; is a need to observe the trail that led to revelation!

For those curious: what led a person to discover within themselves this sense of self, and place in the worlds surrounding themselves:

"Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be!"

We may never know. What we will know is when we arrive at this state of being present within the great mysteries of this life! 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
January 14, 2018

painting a picture. Ada Cottingham. 2017.

"... It is always the simple things that bring the greatest joys, the simplest pleasures and reveal, in the simplest of ways, how to live in wondrous ways! Ain't that something?" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1/14/18 

Towards a Solution

Màat Petrova releasing or letting go.

"Economic expansion cannot alone do the job of improving the employment situation of Negroes. It provides the base for improvement, but other things must be constructed upon it, especially if the tragic situation of youth is to be solved. In a booming economy Negro youth are afflicted with unemployment as though in an economic crisis. They are the explosive outsiders of the American expansion."

~ Martin Luther King Jr. / "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community" p207 ©1968, based on the original 1967 edition

2 old women armed and strengthened by each other.

Insight as a riddle.

Lady Riri lounging atop a city somewhere.

Beauty lies with the women who chose not to be beautiful, but are in a way that subjugates vanity, not by force, but integrity. The will to live is as strong as the will to be better. The need to be seen is as important as being a part of a whole, and being held is a thirst quenched by being loved. It is all laid out in the plan of essence to simply be the essence of who we are as women, and as men!

There is a lot of sacred text about beauty. There is a Biblical notion that beauty is vain, but operates under the principle of standing water. What happens when water stands still? It stagnates. Beauty unfolds. She changes form from making men feel empowered, and making women powerful beyond the limits of religion, belief and cultural expectations. Beauty lies with the women who chose not to be beautiful, but are in a way that subjugates vanity, not by force, but integrity. Beauty knows the place she comes from and Beauty as a soul force can couple with love in such a way transformation takes place.

It takes living to know these things. It takes being present to listen to these things. Intuition, a feminine energy, knows better where beauty can play, as well as knowing can predict outcome. What I mean is that Beauty can be misused, and danger comes to beautiful women quickly in a society adverse to the enlightenment women's essential core brings forth from and pours into Creation.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Nov. 09, 2016

older Black woman, Jo-Ani Johnson, 64.

Older woman fitting in style with her watermelon purse.