This article speaks to the work and wonder of Tsara Shelton. Tsara is an author of "Spinning in Circles and Learning From Myself".

::::::::

Who wants to be normal?

-Burl Hall

We can't say that those of us who write, and those of us who serve as editors for OpEdNews are of any kind of normalcy. Brilliance is seen primarily in those of us who are not of the norm. Indeed, we often meet the culturally defined criteria of insanity.

When Robert Frost takes "the road less traveled by" it makes "all the difference," he speaks to Tsara Shelton. Tsara's work does indeed make a difference. Tsara writes and serves as a photo editor for OpEdNews. She does indeed fit the criteria of abnormality by being an avid reader, writer, and editor for OpEdNews. She also is diagnosed (by me) as a brilliant wild woman. Who cares how the conventional doctors diagnose her? She doesn't.

Speaking to her comments on my articles throughout the years I have submitted to Oped, Tsara's insights have been deep and ultimately very much mirrors of my own. Of course, since many see me as insane, Tsara may also be placed in the same category. In our culture, insanity in many cases is true sanity. It is the courage to strike out beyond the norm, led only by intuition. Who wants to be a McDonald's burger manufactured by standardized teach to the test education?

As the Hindu Ramakrishna said of us mystics: "One hemp smoker knows another the minute they first see each other." Yes Tsara and I are the ultimate hemp smokers who refuse to fall into the deathly trap of normalcy. (Not that Tsara smokes hemp! I wouldn't know or care if she does or she doesn't.)

Ah, it's not the meek that shall inherit the world. It is those of us whose wonderings and wanderings find a path less traveled. Tsara's path is referred to in the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html

Who wants to fit the criteria for being well standardized? Yes, Tsara would not fit the standardized productions of corporations such as McDonalds and Burger King. Her taste and presentation are not stifled. Rather, she shouts out the essence of her Being or Nature in every step she takes. She sings aloud her own music as she walks.

Thus one of Tsara's writings is titled: Learning From Myself: A Collection of Stories That Slowly Grow Up. No "teach to the test" mentality inherent in the likes of George Bush JR! Since God's name in Hebrew is I AM and in Hindu, the Self, or Brahmin, then who else are we to listen if not the Self? Who is the Self or Yahweh or Nature if not us in our deepest nudity? I AM that I AM. In our Being we are Nature.

May we all become strippers in revealing who we truly are!

Perhaps Tsara is like me and has never grown up and refuses to be grown up? "Be ye like an infant" Jesus Christ says in unison with Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Tsara's stories speak to ideas and struggles she has encountered in parenting, autism, sex abuse, mixed-race relationships, and poverty. She writes with a goal of revealing to herself and manifesting in the world her own answers.

Yet, she doesn't mean that in a Burger King kind of way. Not having pickles and onions on one's sandwich is not a statement reflecting a true sense of diversity. Diversity and being of one's taste is NOT in a standardized farming practice that often embraces genetic engineering and mechanical ways of raising animals and plants, as in monoculture cropping and genetic engineering.

These practices take away from who we truly are. That's the point of standardization: To create alienation from the Self--to separate us from I AM. Thus is the motive behind the current educational trends of "Teach to the Test." Yes, this takes away the creative efforts of teacher and student alike. Is this the reason foreign countries have more highly effective educational systems than we in the States? Perhaps they are more supportive of diversity than standardization, or in my terms: McDonald's Educational Centers?

No, Tsara does not take the currently well-traveled (standardized) path, and instead is treading on a more ancient and less structured path. As Frost points out, it is not an untraveled path, just one that has recently (for the last few millennia) been overgrown. Indeed, like my own path, her path is not a path. She is making the path as she travels! This path may mean many thorns in one's backside and legs. It's not a path for the shop-till-you-drop kind of Mom. It may even mean snakebites and mosquitos. Yet, these nuisances are simply participants in the path making. Pests like mosquitoes and the Koch Brothers may even eat us alive. Such is the risk of our being sweet to the taste of varmints like these!

But if we don't suffer these labor pains, how do we give birth? Drugs and alcohol don't cut it. They make us more depressed and keep us stuck. They numb both mother and baby to the ecstasy of one becoming two to rejoin in nourishing love as one.

Robert Frost is one person who, if alive, would give his thumbs up to Tsara! In the end, the Road Less Traveled is the True Path. The McDonald's standardized path is an easy path leading to poor health. That path takes us into Hell. If you live in or near suburbs, take a good hard look at all the box stores. Ah, where has Aphrodite (Beauty) gone? We've killed Nature's Beauty and have chosen the standardized boxes we are now caged and entrapped within. Pickles or no pickles in our food? 2 or 3 bedrooms for our homes? Are these truly freedom and choice?

In addition to editing off-the-wall folks like me on OpEdNews, Tsara is an author of a delightful book: Spinning In Circles, Learning from Myself and a heartfelt blog, Autism Answers. Who of us would in honest reflection not see ourselves in both predicaments? Moving beyond the stuck-filled-drama/horror story inherent in the revolutionary status of being a participant of Western culture, Tsara speaks to an evolution which backs up to Robert Frost's The Road Less Traveled. This is the path towards evolution, not revolution. No more French and American revolutions becoming same manure different day. "No," says Tsara in the non-verbal aspect of her labor "we can't afford that." She proudly loves what so many normal folks tend to ostracize or fear. She is out of the closet as the daughter, sister, and mother of autistic people and the wife in a bi-racial couple. She doesn't fear to celebrate who she is and whom she loves.

And, who is our primary teacher if not the consequences to our actions? How else could we evolve? What are the consequences of being passive in our current culture of standardization? "Don't worry," George Bush JR said upon invading Iraq. "Go shopping--buy duct tape to cover your windows!" Well, Tsara is not a shop-till-ya-drop kind of woman. She has a depth of character, love, intellect and creativity that truly inspires us.

It is not so much the meek that shall inherit the Earth, but the Creative. As Ramakrishna said of his Goddess Kali, "More that creation and creator, Mother is sheer Creativity." Thus, Tsara is a manifestation of Kali-Sophia. She is expressing Christ in the essence of her being. "Christ, the Imagination" says one of the Christian mystics presented in Mysticism, a book written by Evelyn Underhill in the early part of last century. That's Tsara! She is The Word made flesh!

As we destroy Nature, we destroy ourselves. After all, one of the meanings of Nature is Essence. Thus we may say, "it is in Tsara's Nature to be brilliant." Being out of touch with Nature is not being in touch with who we are.

Tsara's manifestation is indeed a shining star. The essence of her being enlightens us all. So does the reader's being. Thus, Meister Eckhart shouts: "All creatures shout God." That means Tsara, that means me, and that means you, dear reader.

Tsara's interview with Burl and Merry is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2015/07/08/tsara-shelton--the-trials-and-triumphs-of-a-life-lived-on-the-edge-of-society

Her book: Spinning in Circles and Learning From Myself is available on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Spinning-Circles-Learning-Myself-Collection-ebook/dp/B00V8REOVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436521967&sr=8-1&keywords=Tsara+Shelton

The day Tsara was born, the Heavens sang the following Joy, Thou spark from Flame immortal. O' Heavenly born Goddess, we invade thy Halidum:

youtu.be/kbJcQYVtZMo

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.