Joni L Whitmore - Torch Time Tales: Volume One

Little Rock, late 1920s. Great-Grandma Ida Potter holding unidentified baby, seated next to Grandma Anna Pauline Billie Potter Whitmore, who is holding the Ligons daughter Mary. On far left is Great-Aunt Dorothy Potter and her sister Wilma.

Torch Time Tales

Volume One

Torch Time Tales

Joni L. Whitmore

BEE PI Media

Volume One

2022 Joni L. Whitmore

TORCH TIME TALES, VOLUME ONE

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of any license permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published by: BEE PI Media

Hardcover ISBN: 979-8-9862045-0-5

Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9862045-1-2

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9862045-2-9

Audiobook ISBN: 979-8-9862045-3-6

First Edition

First Printing June 2022

Cover Photo credit: Patrick M. Whitmore

Contact information for distribution and reprint rights:
Torchtimetales.org

To My Teachers

Table of Contents

F irst things first. I am nearing the end of my days. A while back, I was given two months to two years to live. I have whats called a broken heart in more ways than one. That will have to wait. My window in life is coming and going before my eyes, and theres something that cant wait any longer.

I have a responsibility and an offering to you, which, until now, has been left unaddressed. I am, through these volumes, leaving you with my most intimate, invaluable possession: the elements of my spiritual estate. I hope I get this completed before I depart.

My aim is for this offering to allow the illuminations that have appeared through the cracks between the worlds that I have experienced to continue to expand in strength within you. That light and those illuminations are my spiritual estate, wonder-filled gifts that keep on giving. Im counting on it. If I were unable or unwilling to pass the torch, the light and wisdom might pass with me as I go.

In this spiritual and ancestral memoir, with the direct intervention of several of my nephews and two cousins, you will accompany us through intersections of the past, present, and future that bring us full circle to this point. My life serves as an educational vehicle to help ease your own path toward self-realization and enlightenment. The history of my extended family, with all our scandals over twelve hundred years, reveals where weve gotten stuck or lost our way with one another the world around.

Your own senses will gauge the truths to be gleaned for yourself. You dont have to take my word for any of it. Science now confirms we inherit much of who we are from our ancestors and that much of the known universe is probably conscious. My ancestors dont explain all of who I am, although their histories have resolved many of the mysteries. I am a freak in my family, as youll come to understand, and a seemingly unlikely candidate for this effort. And therein lies the grist for the mill of improving functionality, capacity, and potentiality for all of us human beings. If I can do it, every one of us can.

With infinite help from those here and beyond, I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that breakthroughs in human understanding are pathways to self-realization. As these tales wind back and forth in space and time, your own reality may very well begin to improve in unanticipated, positive ways. It will be noticeable. That impact and benefit will multiply over time. It is meant to be for each of us.

I have come to understand and acknowledge my family history for better and for worse. As a consequence of that understanding, I am making amends accordingly. I was literally summoned here to help. That historical family fact has been plainly staring me in the face throughout my life. With help from every direction, Im coming to terms with my own spiritual responsibilities for what Ive been bequeathed. Now beyond my mature years, Im just learning it was written in the stars all along.

Tongue in cheek, you might say Im a sort of grease monkey for a wheel that was predicted to arrive right about now more than twenty-five hundred years ago. It is foretold to be a golden era of human and spiritual rejuvenation that directly follows one in which weve been lost for some time, adrift in a sea of corruption.

It was also foretold what a difficult journey it is for those who attempt to communicate all of this, and I ask for your patience and assistance. Importantly, benefits multiply each individual, out to even the fiftieth person who comes in contact with that first one who has a spiritual breakthrough in human understanding and then further shares the light will all accrue benefits to the mind and other senses through engagement with others.

It is my intention to help you and our world of relations move to a profoundly improved frame of mind and an enhanced reality of calm and clarity. The amount of change you achieve is up to you. We are each our own self-limiting factor. As each of us is in a different place when approaching this point, your ability to absorb it and your reactions to it will differ. Importantly, the more movement each and every one of us is able to make over time, the easier it will be for everyone now and in the future.

These efforts are meant to serve as a contribution to the revival of a meaningful roadmap for the mind for the greater good. The greater our awareness, the stronger our attention and the more strength well have to maintain and facilitate our connections to our higher selves, one another, and our purpose here on earth and beyond.

Yes, we are all connected. Yes, we are all related. And yes, indeed, we appear to share an infinite mind. Did I mention the universe is interactive? Wonders never cease!

Buddha said that to know enlightenment, one must know ignorance. Eventually, he reminds us, everyone makes their way into enlightenment: all of the women and even the worst of the men eventually go. And we each have the capacity to find our own spiritual path, if necessary. However, he cautions we may climb steep steps when great vehicles exist to help along the way.

Imagine that!

See the light, be the light, and remember to pass the torch before you go!

W hat repeats through time ? You have to admit its a simple question, I began to explain to the family and friends whod gathered to hear the latest edition of my aunt Jonis Torch Time Tales . Privately speaking, I considered myself an unlikely candidate for the job from the get-go, but the responsibility had fallen squarely in my lap, whether I liked it or not.

We all receive the same handwritten question when its our time, sent on a plain white postcard, I continued. It arrived in my case sometime shortly after one of my birthdays as a younger adult. That question was the only thing on it. It wasnt even signed, but I recognized my aunts handwriting. The postcard was unmistakably her work. I took a moment to look around at the expressions on the faces of those comfortably assembled.