Moving from California to North Carolina has been an interesting experience.

Alligator River Bridge with a Longtail ninja

This is part of a Journey into both the physical and the spiritual.

Life is a pilgrimage to a fearless Knowing of the True Self.

I'll admit I had and continue to have, expectations. Yet, those expectations are limited to just a few like being able to surf in warmer waters than California. Warmer water is a simple expectation based in reality and easy to achieve because it will happen joyfully. Expectations are not where I'm headed in this thought process, so I'll leave them where they originated...in my ego.

Identity is where I'm headed. A leap across the chasm from the limited ego into something greater. And yeah...it's a process I welcome.

An Adventure if you will and I love me some Adventure.

As you read this, please remember that no human or human created system of control, can take away what you truly are. They may be able to strip away an ego created identity which is merely an illusion, but they cannot strip away what is Real.

After driving 2,820 miles across the country with my dog, Lucky, I intentionally arrived on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The same place I moved away from almost nineteen years ago in 1998.

Back then, I was a Licensed Architect, a husband, a father, an artist and a surfer. In the past, those labels were how I identified myself both professionally and personally. A lot has changed.

Some of what changed were not very pleasant while it was happening, but every single change contains a profound lesson.

I will always be in Gratitude for lessons, no matter the intensity. Lessons create Growth. Growth creates Strength. Strength creates Faith. Faith eliminates fear. Once fear is gone, Love becomes easy and a Knowing of who I truly am is revealed with human created labels dissolving into the nothing from whence they came.

As I was contemplating the change, I would hear suggestions from others. Each of us will always receive unsolicited advice from others. The trick is to remain in your Power and only allow a final choice to be made from your own Divine Knowing.

Hey Greg, you're an Architect, you should do that for a living again.

Or...

Dude, you spent so much time of your life going to school for Architecture and getting your license, you'd be wasting all of that if you didn't go back to Architecture again.

Yesh...

I have not worked as an Architect for many years, although design is an ability I have which I love. That human granted label from others is not who I Am even though I used to think of that ego identity as me.

Sure, when I received those statements (and much more) from others, I thought about it. I love the creative process and especially love the design process with real pencils on real paper. I will continue to create designs for buildings and have even designed a house I will build someday near an ocean. I'll need a place to hang my coat when I return from the sea from time to time. :)

I even went so far as to contact the North Carolina State Board of Architecture and asked them through email what the process of reactivating my Architecture License would look like. I took the dive into government bureaucracy and quickly remembered why I drifted away from it.

Message to NC Board of Architecture on January 7, 2017:

Hi, I stopped working as an Architect back in 2003 while living in California and have not worked as an Architect or anything related since 2003. I make my living in a totally unrelated field. I am a Published Author and Speaker.

I held a license in NC (#5427) in good standing, which I allowed to lapse soon after 2003. I live in California now, but I will be moving back home to North Carolina sometime in 2017 and am thinking about renewing my NC license if that is possible after such a long time.

Can you tell me the proper procedure for renewing my license to practice Architecture in NC?

With respect,
Gregory Allen Frucci

First reply back to me on January 9, 2017:

Mr. Frucci,
Since your license expired more than 10 years ago, we no longer have you in our system. You must apply for a new license by reciprocity. The application and information is found in the forms section at www.ncbarch.org.

Sincerely,
Cathe Evans
Executive Director
NC Board of Architecture

So I checked with California on January 9, 2017 and responded to the NC Board of Architecture:

Thank you, Ms. Evans for responding so quickly!

I reviewed the form for new license by reciprocity, which calls for licensure in another state and NCARB certification. I also allowed my California license to lapse at the same time I allowed NC license to lapse and I do not hold a license in another state since I have not worked as an Architect since the early 2000's. Does this mean that I cannot get my NC license back at all? Or, is there another way?

Thank you,
Greg Frucci

The final email response from the NC State Board of Architecture was short and cold on January 11, 2017:

Mr. Frucci,
Unfortunately, the only way to obtain licensure in NC is via reciprocity which requires current licensure and NCARB certification. It’s as if you were never licensed in NC.
Cathe Evans

Cathe M. Evans
Executive Director
NC Board of Architecture

Lesson learned.

I'm not going to fight it. Some things are just the way the are. Having NCARB certification doesn't matter since I no longer hold a license in any state. I'd rather spend my time creating art, going on adventures and living life as a loving human being on a pilgrimage to his destiny.

I suppose governmental agencies can destroy all the paper they wish, expunging people into nonexistence. Buildings will always come down over time anyway. None of that will go with me into the next life...only Love will continue. Being an Architect is part of my past with most of that lifestyle I do not wish to recreate.

Evidently, I simply required a nudge from the Universe about the path forward. I asked for a sign and I got one. Something for which, I am in deep Gratitude.

My path of life over 56 years has been amazing and if I were to die tomorrow, I know I will have accomplished more than I ever dreamed of doing as a small child who wondered what life would be like as an adult.

I've created spaces for people to live in, worship in, do business in and learn about how life works in.

I've experienced massive intensity through relationships with women.

I've gone on tremendous Adventures having sailed alone in the Atlantic Ocean twice.

I've published books and shared the stage with powerful CEO's telling true stories of overcoming challenges in Life.

I've even done a little acting on stage and screen on the side.

I've traveled the world and learned the most important lesson of all: We are all One created from the same place...Love. Thus, we are all the same with each of us worthy of a life filled with Love if we choose to live that way.

Your life has been amazing too. No more or less than mine or anyone else's if you choose to look at your personal path from your perspective. Think about the life lessons. Think about what you've grown into. Even a short time frame of twenty years can create profound change.

My identity is the same as yours. I Am an aspect of the Creator (Divine Being, Spirit, God, Allah or whatever human created name you wish to give IT...I do not judge how or what another human chooses to believe...no human has that right or has been contracted to do that job).

I know who I Am. I know what I Am. I know how I Serve. I Am here.

When we feel the passion of a personal experience such as an Adventure into the unknown, that very passion rises to the surface of our being as we express love not as an emotion, but as a Way of Being.

We each create from that place. Whether one considers himself, herself, an artist or not. We create with every thought we have. The trick is to know where the thinking comes from. Ego...or something within each of us which is infinitely more powerful.

Originally an email as it was written to someone I call, Muse:

Gifts from the One...
connections from all directions on the compass rose not expected nor sought by the Voyagers...yet...
they have become the most powerful ever experienced by either soul...I felt the Power upon the indigo sea...
this we have shared...this I accept...a gift to us from above...

Gifts from the One...
an ability to translate who we are...
the unseen to the dimension we all perceive...
yours is the lens...mine is the pen...a gift to us from above...

Merely two of many gifts from the One...
one of Peace...one of Love...together the gifts become whole...One.

So, perhaps accept the gifts we are given. No matter what they are. And go forward from the acceptance of them in the present moment.

And by gifts I mean not only our talents whatever they may be, but also the experiences we have. We create them. We bring them to us. Even the ones that suck.

And the ones that suck will become our greatest teachers if we allow them to. As we accept in the present moment and feel the lessons, the way forward becomes clear as the fog lifts with the sun shining once again...and it always will.

Love becomes easier this way as we feel the strength of the Knowing the gifts have brought to us.

With this Knowing, now I Know I can truly Love the One I Love.