I have been super busy this last week with speaking engagements, interviews, and building support for The ELLA Foundation and the grassroots advocacy work we are doing in Mississippi. Let me tell you, I am not the only dogged and determined person out there who has set their mind to proving that Mississippi needs reform and that love, compassion, and education are the tools we need to utilize to effect that reform.

My phone rang off the hook this week, calls from family members of Mississippi’s incarcerated and condemned, seeking help for their loved ones. The one call I felt really, really bad about not being able to take each of the four times it was made was a call from Scotland, from Almut Brandl, the wife of Blayde Grayson, currently incarcerated at Parchman Plantation, otherwise known as the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on death row. Thanks to Almut’s dogged determination, she finally got me to answer the phone this morning, and we had a very pleasant conversation. I asked her to share, if willing, a story about Blayde that would help the public see that men on death row are not monsters. She did me one better. She shared Blayde’s own words. When I read them, I knew I had to share them immediately, before my overwhelming schedule took over again. When you read them, you’ll understand why ELLA is honored to share his words with you.

Love people…at the end of the day, it’s all about love. Or should be. Enjoy Blayde’s words, and if you’d like to help ELLA in her efforts to effect reform in Mississippis’s criminal justice system, or to share your story as Almut and Blayde have done, please email me at Talk to ELLA or at [email protected].

If you would like to write Blayde, you will find his address at the end of his story. Much love to all my ELLA peeps today.

POSITIVE NEWS: Sat. July 21^st 2012

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with my neighbour. I heard him say out loud to the walls of his cell “I wish the world were different”. So I asked him a simple question “how would You contribute of Yourself to changing the world?” His immediate answer was to kill all the politicians and have an anarchical society where the only rule is the strong survive. I pointed out to him that’s exactly the world we live in today and the only way to change is with hearts of LOVE and open minds. This is also the formula for changing the world and saving the planet from human destruction. Of course the only response was laughter from my neighbour. Now, let me digress a little and explain. My neighbour’s laughter of derision is the typical response I receive when I speak to my fellows of LOVE, compassion, open hearts and minds and the honour of the divine Source of Life and Mother Earth. It’s extremely hard for the fellows here to understand me when I talk of LOVE, see I am surrounded by the men society considers so damaged and reprehensible that they decided we should all be murdered. I live on Mississippi’s Death Row waiting like the fellows to meet my fate. I fully understand each man here and his inability to feel as I do. It’s my view that LOVE, pure unbiased, unconditional LOVE is the only chance this planet and her inhabitants have of a hope for survival. Everyone’s first question is “Blayde, what the hell happened to You, dude?”, and my answer is always the same, “Almut and her LOVE!”

In 2009 guided by angels and with encouragement of her friend Johanna Almut decided to write to a convict and thanks to the Divine I was her choice. I don’t know why. Back then before “Almut and LOVE” I was about the lousiest low life piece of human trash on the planet. I was the quintessential example of all the horror stories You probably heard of what a Southern Outlaw Biker and Death Row convict was. I was so filled with rage, hate and self loathing that my every waking hour and the few hours I’d pass out and sleep – I never slept until I was too exhausted not to, the night mares I had I won’t describe here – were filled with visions of revenge so grotesque I won’t put them into words. All I thought about was how to cheat, scam and steel from everyone I could write. I’d plot to do the vilest things to the men around me. I was a sad and pathetic critter.

And then one day in early 2009 I received a letter from an Angel. It came floating into my cell all wrapped in red. Of course when I read Almut was a Doctor my first thought was, “hot damn cha-ching I hit the Jack Pot!, a Dr., a Dr. !” And the more I read the/her first letter the more hate I felt. Of all things she was a spiritual person. And I loathed anything spiritual. So I thought forget about it and threw the letter away, so I thought. One day a few months later in August 2009 I was cleaning my cell and going through some papers and what did I find? Yep, the Angel Almut’s letter. This was a head scratch moment for me. By this time I’d really began to struggle within myself. I’d become disillusioned and tired of the Outlaw lifestyle I was living, tired of the hate, tired of every thought being sick thoughts. Unbeknown to me this was my Soul and mind seeking desperately for the one nourishment it’d never had or known it lacked, that being LOVE. My Soul was beginning to register that part of it was missing. So when Almut’s letter reappeared I answered it and today I am a loved and loving and completely different man. I am my true Self and on a journey with my Soul Mate to heal my hate and the world and discombobulate the ignorance of selfishness. The pure simple LOVE Almut has shown towards me from that first letter to the simple beauty of her heart and Soul continues to surprize and inspire me to be a better man each day. Our one LOVE together spreads to the hate filled hearts of the men who live in these cells around me. Some of them never known LOVE or kindness until now shown to them by myself and Almut. Men who could care less if the sun comes up now will pray for Almut to have safe journeys so she and I can share our visits.

Our LOVE has planted seeds of hope and generosity in the fields of the bleakest Souls and our belief is with constant care and devotion our LOVE will be rewarded with fields of crazy wildflowers growing from inside those fellow fields of dire misery. Our LOVE, Almut’s LOVE changed me into a man of LOVE and peace. Our LOVE has fortified Almut’s Soul and in turn she has become more confident with an inner strength that moves mountains. Yes, I still have bad days, when the negative and darkness try to reclaim me. And Almut has bad days, too, when she looses hope and allows her fears to override her LOVE. But I quietly turn my thoughts to my future with Almut and all our dreams of home, a peaceful planet where LOVE abounds and our Family. Our LOVE saved me and is spreading around me in this prison. The convicts and officers alike notice the difference in me and they are slowly beginning to ask and wanting to know my formula and I happily tell them “the LOVE of my Wife.”

LOVE leads to finding Your true Self, and truth leads to finding Your life purpose, and with purpose comes hope, and with hope a future. If one lady who follows her heart and finds LOVE in the most unconventional place – a death house in America -, spreads LOVE, and heals one man’s damaged Soul, which spreads to those around him, just imagine the chances that can be made if we all follow our hearts, stop worrying about what society would think of us and reach out to those deprived Souls who need LOVE most, reach out to those who fell through the cracks and pull them back up on their feet, help them come out of the darkness and see the sunshine again and reach out to governments and voice Your views. Please join the collective consciousness, add Your positive vibes to mine and Almut’s and to the planet’s web. Let’s all heal the hearts that will heal our planet and humanity. LOVE is the only chance we have. LOVE is the only medicine to heal all sickness.

BLAYDE N. GRAYSON

37922

U-29/J-Bldg./D-Row

Parchman

Mississippi 38738