Here we are in August and I’m getting more and more excited for the holiday season and cooler weather!
The stores already have Halloween decorations and costumes out and we are starting to talk about football and kids going back to school. This is the time of year I love, October through February, but this is the lead in time. I have also started planning our October, which is when the riding season gets started back up here in Florida. We always start October with Cotee River Bike Fest then Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach and we end October in Panama City Beach at Thunder Beach! LET’S GO!!!!
We are bringing back out annual TUCK A BUCK POKER RUN Friday August 16th – this is a 21 and up age poker run that visit some of the local gentleman’s establishments starting in Pasco and ending in Clearwater at the newly remodeled REIGN Ladies' & Gentlemen's Nightclub. We are going to start at Red Room in Pasco County on SR 54 and our stops will be Silks on 19, Oasis, Oz and ending at REIGN. This will be a lot of fun and if anyone remembers the Lap Dance of Luxury poker run, this might turn into that again! We will at least have $500 in cash to give away, depending on how many hands are sold we might have more cash prizes at the end stop. We hope to see some people on this run, it will be a lot of fun!
On The Cover this month is one of the best bike and jeep nights happening and that has been growing for the past few years. Circle S BBQ #1 has some of the best BBQ in the area. I love going to this bike and jeep night for their food! From the BBQ to
their desserts, you can’t find better BBQ. Next is what Harold, the owner, has done with the back event area bay adding sun covers, a huge new bar, a stage is coming, he also added square footage by making the area larger and now it will have its own dedicated restrooms. This event area is large and can host anything from wrestling matches, MMA fights to even be a great wedding venue if you are getting married any time soon. You must check it out. Their bike and jeep night is the second Wednesday of every month and is August 14th this month, hope to see you all there.
WCFR has a few events coming up starting August 10th with their Nitty Gritty Ybor City Pool Party 3.0! If you haven’t been to the past few you are missing out on one hell of a party. You know if you are hanging out with WCFR it’s going to be a great time, how about taking over an entire pool area at a hotel!? Over 100 people just looking to have a great time, you can’t have a better time, trust me. There is breakfast, a ride and an after party at the pool at the Hampton Inn & Suites 10240 Causeway Blvd. Tampa FL 33619. We will be there this year taking videos and pictures, I’m sure most won’t be able to be shown on social media so come out for one hell of a party. Their other Party is in September on September 14th and is the WCFR Flotilla Bikers and Boaters on Beer can island Apollo Beach. I haven’t –been to this party yet but I hope to make it out there this year, I’m sure if it’s anything like their other parties you won’t want to miss this either, they have plenty of boats to help bring people out to the island if that is a concern. Everyone remember to be safe and ride smart in this heat. Don’t drink and ride and please drink lots of water and stay hydrated while riding. Be safe, be smart, call Fran Haasch if you have been in any kind of auto or bike accident 866-LAW-FRAN or www.lawfran.com and I hope to see everyone soon.
The Diva Angels
Tampa Bay Chapter has been raffling those liquor bottles during the Expo and bike nights at Quaker Steak and Lube, we would like to thank the community for helping us write this $1000 donation to the CASA Organization, the domestic violence center for Pinellas County providing lifesaving services to women, children, and men living with domestic violence for over 40 years. www.casapinellas.org
Start collecting pj’s and house slippers! The Tampa Chapter is collecting these items to donate to
the C.A.S.A women’s shelter. Please help us help the local community.
Keep hydrated and dress visibly, we are in the heat of the summer with daily rain showers.
Tampa Bay Chapter adds social riding events to their calendar regularly, all rides are open to guests. Check our Facebook page or website calendar https://www. tampabaydivaangels.
com/events-calendar.html to see what’s going on and come join the fun. We have been very busy with all types of events so far this year. Our most recent adventures have been Amber’s Mystery Rides, Buddhist Temple, Birthday Ride to Woody’s River Roo, Solomin’s Castle, and Yalaha Bakery. All rides are open, and guests are welcomed; Check our google calendar regularly, we are always adding new events.
To learn more about us and what we do, we meet at Wing House 7790 US Hwy 19 N, Pinellas Park, FL 33781 (back room), 2nd Tuesday Monthly; 6:30 Social; Meeting 7-8pm; You can also find us at different bike nights around town.
Check out the all the chapters of the Diva Angels on our website http://www.divaangels.org to find a local chapter near you or visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DIVAANGELSTAMPABAYCHAPTER/ we are a 501c (7) not for profit organization. Ride safe and rubber side down, COME RIDE WITH US!
Diva Helene, Web/Media/ Treasurer
Diva Angels Tampa Bay Chapter
We are all, to some degree and without exception, “in pain”. Pain is inevitable; it is essential. We can run from it, numb it or learn from it. We cannot escape this reality. We learn, or we continue to be broken until we decide to embrace pain’s lessons with humility and compassion. Compassion for ourselves and, yes, compassion for those who hurt and betray us—or seem to betray us.
So, what, in your opinion, is the greatest form of pain? Cheating? Stealing? No. Not based on my experience. Personally, I would rather someone cheat on me (which has happened in almost all my tumultuous relationships, including one of my two marriages).
Stealing?
Pretty bad too. There is, however, nothing compared to a breach of your deepest confidential-
ity. If someone steals from you, you can always make it up. If they breach your deep confidentiality, they are stealing from and violating your soul in the most severe manner. And that is where I’m going here. There are pains greater than others, therefore greater lessons to be learned. I will, however, point out here that I am not demeaning the trauma victims of cruel physical, mental, psychological, emotional, or spiritual abuse experience. This is merely an opinion based on common relational matters.
A breach of confidentiality turned into slander and gossip is a vicious, malicious, pernicious, and repulsive violation of one’s soul. A violation so deep, there is no coming back from it. What I’m talking about here is when you are in a position where you love so much you open all gates of your soul. You show the good, the bad, and the ugly in the deepest manner, where self-hatred once reigned under the veil of shame. You open that door of pain hoping it will be received as a true, genuine, authentic demonstration of commitment and dedicated love.
But not everyone is equipped or prepared to truly receive or share truth, transparency, and brutal honesty. That’s the lesson here.
Betrayal is one thing. Betrayal with the addition of slander and gossip no matter how justifiable it may seem to be by the perpetrator stems from deep-seated insecurities. From a deep pride hell bent on avoiding the reality of one’s own failures. It is ignorance of the truths of life in the emotional, spiritual, and psychological realms. Why? Because all these individuals have ever known is pain. Therefore, they can only offer pain. Betrayal by slander is committed by unawareness, hurting minds and hearts. It helps them forget about their own pain, their own flaws. It gives them the illusion they are not accountable for their own words or actions. Therefore, they will mercilessly point at one’s lifelong injuries, reopen their wounds, and twist a knife back in it so they feel justified in walking away from standing by you. The religious are very good at that. They feel you are too ugly to love, to stand by or defend you when you need it at your most vulnerable points.
Once you deal with the depth of hell in your own soul, facing all your most ugly painful demons, you come to understand people like that. You grow to have compassion for them. You see their wounds. Invisible forces raw with emotions still have control over them. You see their pain, their chains. How it affects them. You understand their blindness, their triggers, their sins. But how do we deal with people in pain who, in most cases, aren’t aware of their own pain? Who, to forget their responsibilities and numb their pain, become, despite themselves, instruments of pain.
Pain by separation is the very first thing, the first trauma we get to experience at birth. We come into this world by a necessary break of the bond from life sustained in the womb. From that moment, unless you were the fortunate benefactor of true comforting love from parents immediately after birth, we only know the trauma. A separation associated as a sort of twisted reference to comforting love. This creates a massive void—a giant monster vacuum in search of anything that will appease that unbearable void, including anything and anyone that will potentially cause us pain. This profound, unwanted, uncomfortable, and painful separation void of connectedness. The “unloved” kickstarts into a lifelong
journey to reconnect with something. Anything. This intimate, intricate connection soul-to-soul we seek to cultivate with and in search of the right heart. This “soul mate.” This “twin flame.” Some will embrace just about anything or anyone to at least have an illusion of being connected and loved. Sadly, this will be at their own cost and at the cost of others. Like vampires and junkies.
As a result, the unloved do not know life without pain. And so, pain is mainly all the unloved can offer to others and to themselves. Sadly, others do not know life without pain either, so pain is mostly all they can offer as well. I say this in a general way. The perfect storm between imperfect hearts and souls that buy-in and embody made-up lies about the self, involuntarily imposed by others from an early age.
In our feeble attempts to connect and love, we hurt. Our hurt hurts others and vice versa. This is, it seems, the one thing we all have in common in the process of learning our way back to love. Contrary to popular trends, I will dare say love is not about the cult of self. Sure, we need to care for ourselves, but some will take that to the extreme. Love is about selflessness. I would say we cannot love ourselves before we learn to selflessly love the unlovable with compassion. And if we see many as unlovable, is it also fair to say we are ourselves quite unlovable to many? No? Pain generates pain and wickedness for the weak and unaware. It takes great strength to see others’ pain for what it is. To see the effect it has on the unlovable. That is where compassion can become stronger, generating peace despite the pain imposed by others. You become detached from the chains of vengeance, bitterness, and resentment, resulting in greater enjoyment of life.
We, therefore, navigate life riding through mutually ancestrally-caused pain, hurt, lies, deception, gossip, slander, hate, love, “pseudo-love,” truths, bonds, and betrayals. We try as best as we can to make sense of it. We will be betrayed to the deepest core, and we will also betray (I been guilty too). The ego and the pride in us are hurt, so it blindly blames others. It wants to get even. It wants to justify why we don’t deserve what was done to us.
We all turn into narcissists to varying degrees, and we play victims. And how we all love to play victims, don’t we? It seemingly takes all responsibility away from the choices we made in the first place. How convenient. We unknowingly lie
to ourselves and others because we bought lies that looked like truths about us. Therefore, we betray ourselves. If we betray ourselves, then by default, we betray others. The result is the concealment of our true and unknown unaware identity. It is a sick coping and protection mechanism that gives the illusion of safety. It throws us deep into the dark chambers of solitary emotional confinement. That’s where evil wants us. Our hearts grow colder and colder, unforgiving and without compassion for ourselves and others. Some jump from person to person in short-term serial relationships as a temporary band-aid. 50%+ of marriages fail, don’t they? Because our hearts grow cold. Some do drugs. Others alcohol or whatnot. We numb. Some believe their own lies, and that becomes extremely dangerous, leading them close to a path to hell.
“If you practice violating your own conscience with a performative contradiction— a willingness to act out what runs contrary to your own sense of morality— then you become the embodiment of a lie. There is endless metaphorical speculation of the spirit of the lie, and if you allow it to take up residence with you, then you do that at your peril. The danger of being an actor is that you become the actor, and then you lose you. You replace you with that falsehood, and that will make you bitter, which only leads to becoming revengeful—and worse. Therefore, you do not want to practice that.” ~Dr. Jordan Peterson
understanding the above-described dynamics, how it affects us, and others. We become deeply aware, slowly empowered by the freedom these truths reveal to us about the lies of pain and living in pain. We become more understanding and compassionate with ourselves and with others. We start seeing their pain for what it is. We start seeing that their actions and reactions do not define who they really are deep down. And when we start to understand our own pains and triggers, we become more compassionate with ourselves. And slowly, the stronghold of shame and guilt and coping systems lose their luster, revealed for what they truly are: poison to our souls, decapitating us from our full potential in life. Anxiety, depression, and the rest we like to medicate no longer need meds. That is, if we have the courage to face those demons head-on. Only once we taste Truth can we start being in a position to offer our true self, genuine love, and compassion. Pain and betrayal’s paradigms change to be seen as lessons for growth and personal responsibility.
We get triggered, and we trigger others. Depending on our perception of reality and our ability or inability to communicate in the context of expectations, we judge, we label others as “narcissist,” “liar,” “manipulator,” or whichever label can be slapped to alleviate the pain of our ego and our pride and, most importantly, our refusal to take responsibility for our own actions, our own thwarted sense of reality. We ignore our role in choosing as we did. We react and justify instead of responding with mature thoughtfulness. We give up. We break up. We walk away. We get exhausted mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Then frustration and anger take over, triggering words and actions we know we will regret. And so we get angry and prideful and vengeful and bitter and resentful and egotistical because others, we feel, have betrayed us. It’s a vicious, insidious cycle within.
That is
So, when you ask me why I ride, well, it helps me make sense of all the above. When I ride, I reflect, I meditate, I pray, I laugh, I cry, I scream, I talk out loud. It helps me digest life’s betrayals, gossip, and slander, yes, but more importantly, it helps me to grow in compassion and understanding towards those who still hurt deeply. It helps me look at my own pain and the lies it tempts me to believe. In two different conversations, Jesus was asked about divorce and forgiveness. On divorce, He said God provided this option “because of the hardness of our hearts.” Then He was asked how many times we should forgive our brother who sins against us, and He said, “seventy-seven times.” Easier said than done, but once you can understand someone’s scars, it becomes easier to love them regardless.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~1 Corinthians 13:4-7
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