UnBoxing “God”

McCall B-L. (AFG, Los Angeles) at The AA Metro East Banquet, in Bellevue, Illinois on Aug. 5th, 2023

In this episode, you’ll get to know the captivating ‘Mom of TikTok’, Samantha Howsden Ward aka @MONW0102. She shares her spiritual evolution, which developed from a God-FEARing relationship as a child, with a Bible beating, mentally ill mother.... into (co)dependency with a toxic first marriage... and finally, to the place where, now she actively chooses Love over Fear. - Tune in to hear all the juicy bits of Samantha’s life story and expanding belief system, from the positive impacts of divorce, to her son changing her parents’ expressions of love. - How have YOU Chosen Love today? - This Bonus Holiday Gift episode of Unboxing “God” is an atypical format (like the “Complete Convos” I post on Patreon) in which Samantha calls herself a ‘conundrum wrapped in an enigma’, as she has interests all over the place. She is who she is - growing daily and meeting people where they are. I (hey there, McCall speaking!) wholeheartedly agree and I suspect you will too, after listening to this whirlwind of an episode. Happy holidays!! - - • Samantha’s TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@monw0102

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/monw0102

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/samantha.howsden

• YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCC60MfqcUTuPGkog4m3piuA

• Website: www.monw0102.com

On Thursday night (Nov. 26th, 2020), McCall had the honor and opportunity to share her story of Experience, Strength and Hope - for an online, quarantined, holiday, Zoom call conference. The childhood memories that flowed forth were thanksgiving miracles, because it was suddenly so easy to remember the good, and took actual effort to recall the “bad”. What you will hear is the story of an only child raised by a single mother - a magical, creative, beautiful poet of a woman, and also an alcoholic. Hear how, with the help of Al-Anon and AlATeen (and a higher power she calls “Waldo”) McCall discovered gratitude, joy, and contentment. (Los Angeles, CA.)

For the final episode of Season One, McCall and her husband, Kyle, disclose their journey through a very unhealthy relationship and into the intimate and loving marriage they now enjoy.

With five guests, this is a Jam Packed episode... which make make you salivate! Like an English Muffin, the Nooks and Crannies are where the goodness resides. It's the Space In between that solidifies any relationship and fosters healthy boundaries.

Kristin Combs, shares about how she is approaching her new relationship differently. Author Juan Lee (Love Made Simple) talks boundaries and the responsibilities of love. Professor  Mormon Mike is back to talk about deep connections and allowing love. Finally, executive coach, Sarah Goodson (www.threebeatsconsulting.com) brings some valuable tools for instilling boundaries, compassion and forgiveness... for others and ourselves.

WARNING: Talk of crock-pot chili, English muffins, ice cream cake, and other food analogies... may make you salivate.

In this episode, McCall unboxes awe and wonder. 

She contemplates the causes and effects of her own limited opportunities to experience awe as a child and endeavors to discover the benefits, and possible downsides of awe.

McCall explores the history of awe and its evolution in society, the sources of awe, it’s power to create social bonds, and even provide physical healing. 

In an interview with Mike Richardson professor of Adolescent Development and Classroom Management at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, McCall hears about the wondrous nature of grapes, and posits awe as a form of worship.

Finally, McCall relays the value of boredom in sparking curiosity, and encourages all of us not to worry, because worry leaves us “feeling awful instead of awe filled.”

Sacred Geometry: Understanding the Underling Meanings of Shapes + Patterns

In this episode of Unboxing God, we talk about sacred geometry and the meaning and connection of certain shapes, like the square, circle, and triangle. Is the ultimate answer in the Great Architect or just a series of extremely unlikely coincidences? Paying attention to your surroundings reveals patterns appearing all around us both in nature and in human made structures; we take a closer look at how this is especially true of the golden ratio.

We also try to unbox the number five, and the irrationality of pi and phi. It is important to that from our earliest days humans have been using images, shapes, and numbers to represent our understanding of the universe. But we also need to understand that there’s still so much more we don’t know and highly unlikely that we will ever achieve the theory of everything.

Listen in to learn how sacred geometry brings healing, harmony, and rebalancing on every level. You will also understand why the triangle is the magic shape uniting the body, mind, and spirit.

What you will learn:

· How sacred geometry deals with more than proportions of geometric figures, but also with forms and structures of natural objects.

· My struggle with finding balance with any two things and the solution of some possible third option.

· The circle - is the undifferentiated unity and a sign of completion.

· A snippet of Devon’s interview - she’s a freemason and has been interested in satanic literature since she was a child.

· Unboxing the number five - the Fibonacci Sequence and the golden ratio and how by paying attention you can see patterns appearing all over.

· Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man mystery - on whether he used the golden ratio or not.

· How sacred geometry supposedly connects the inner with the outer in unity.

· The triangle - represents the union of our body, mind, and spirit and is the symbol that underlies all other symbols. It is the magic shape.

· Why we’ll never achieve the theory of everything but can be inspired by the natural phenomena we can see all around us.

A special Trick and (several) Treats from Brother Matthew Paul... on the REAL DEAL of Halloween.   

Drop all of your preconceptions before listening, cuz I bet this is not at all what you expect to hear.

Especially coming from a “Religious Brother” of Catholicism. 

From the history of trick or treating and dressing in costumes, to the merging of many holidays into a harvest filled bounty of celebration that many folks may know, Brother Matthew Paul talks druids, Wicca, Catholicism, and The Order of The Bards, Ovates, & Druids. He shares his own Dominican order’s reverent practice of honoring their families and ancestors, but especially their dead. Learn the truth about Samhain, Neopaganism, Purgatory, All Souls’, Guy Fawkes - from Saints to Satan, Brother Matthew Paul leaves no caldron untipped (or pumpkin Un carved) in this fantastic expose of a really wonderful holiday! 

As always, friends, things are precisely what you make of them. 

Boo!

Fact: Explaining Sacred Geometry and Vortex Math for a podcast... audio and no visuals... suffice to say: It is a BEAST. And although I have been working diligently on an epic episode all about Sacred Shapes, Divine Digits + Persistent Patterns - it’s still pretty rough at the moment. It needs at least a few more days of TLC (and Kyle’s ruthless editing cuts) before it is ready to meet you. Instead of working myself into a tizzy, and entirely forgoing sleep again tonight, I am practicing the pause and giving myself some grace. Anything Important, isn’t (usually) also Urgent. The world will keep spinning, and I won’t ask you to sit through a 2+ hour, mathematical furry of concepts. I will breathe and be grateful.... that Thankfully, I have held on to this particular Plan B in case I should stumble upon just this sort of situation. Alas, today, you shall hear my first public Al-Anon speaker lead - in all its imperfection. (The sound is pretty rough and, due to nerves, I talk super fast at first. But, I slow down and share my story of how it was, what happened and how it’s different now. It was off the cuff and from the heart, and I hope you find something in it that touches you. (In Waldo we trust.)

Regardless of whether you want to complete your basketball season, get from point A to point B, or deliver a healthy baby... the safest place to be is cushioned in the middle of a protective “bubble”.

    This week's episode really packs a punch - and a few kicks - as McCall has three conversations with different martial arts practitioners who offer their insights into the importance of finding an equilibrium... where one is not teetering at either end of two extremes, but instead expands that line to an encompassing sphere - at the center of which, lies safety and security.  

Beth W. practices a Kabbalah connected martial art in NYC. 

Rich H. is learning Jeet Kun Do, created by Bruce Lee. 

Masters Tanya and Wally Bagot, who run Sunset San Soo in LA, explain to McCall that this style of Kung Fu is not for sport, but self-protection. 

And what do they all have in common...?

Balance, training, mindful awareness, and flow. 

Also, featuring the wise words of Bruce Lee and Joseph Campbell, on dangerous dichotomies, following your bliss & finding the safe balance of the center. 

Quotes

 “One of the basic Kabalistic concepts is that God creates the universe anew - every day. The world is in a constant state of creation.” -- Beth Wilensky 

“Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless -- like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." --Bruce Lee 

“Whenever one moves out of the transcendent, one comes into a field of opposites. These two pairs of opposites come forth, as male and female, from the two sides. What has eaten of the tree of the knowledge -- not only of good and evil, but of male and female, of right and wrong, of this and that, and light and dark. Everything in the field of time is dual - past and future, dead and alive. All this. Being and non-being. Is/isn't. They always come in pairs and put your mind in the middle. Most of us put our minds on the side of the good, against what we think of as evil. It was Heraclites, I think, who said: ‘For God, all things are good, and right, and just. But for man, some things are 'right' and others are 'Not'.’ You're in the field of time when you're man. And one of the problems of life is to live in the realization of both terms. That is to say, ‘I know the center. And I know that good and evil are simply temporal apparitions.’” -- Joseph Campbell 

“Follow your bliss. …with a deep sense of being informed. And … then going where your body and soul want to go. When you have that feeling, then stay with it! And don't let anyone throw you off.” -- Joseph Campbell 

“Martial arts means honestly expressing yourself.” -- Bruce Lee 

“Humility is a willingness to learn.” -- Wally Bagot 

“Running water never grows stale.” -- Bruce Lee