Category: Post
-
My One-Year Journey with Tantric Massage Therapy
For the past year, I’ve been experiencing tantric massage therapy here in Barcelona, and at 65 years old, it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever done anything like this. What began as a completely serendipitous encounter has become a profound healing journey that has transformed my relationship with my body and myself. I…
-
The Mountain Where Time Stands Still: My Secret Retreat from Barcelona’s Bustle
Each year, I escape to Montserrat for a solitude retreat that renews my spirit in ways no other place can. Just an hour from Barcelona by train, this mountain sanctuary feels like stepping into another world. The magic truly begins after 5 pm, when day-trippers board their buses and descend to the city. Suddenly, the…
-
El Cuarto De La Purga
EL CUARTO DE LA PURGA Una Novela Corta por Randy Elrod Para aquellos que se han atrevido a cruzar puertas transformadoras y para aquellos que aún las buscan. CAPÍTULO UNO Llegada a Manhattan Dicen que Dios habla en susurros, pero todo lo que escuché mientras nuestro jet descendía hacia Nueva York fue silencio—ese tipo de…
-
I Invented Five New Cocktails–And They Are Delicious!
One of our new favorite Barcelona speakeasies is a short ten-minute walk from our home. We stumbled upon it while searching for a new Mexican restaurant we found on The Fork app. As we looked in the glass doors, we knew this was a place we had to visit, so we slipped in for a…
-
Barcelona: The Muse Behind “The Purging Room”
In the labyrinthine streets of Barcelona, where Gothic spires rise above modernist masterpieces and ancient Roman walls embrace Mediterranean shores, I found the perfect muse for my transformative novella, The Purging Room. The idea was born in the Appalachian wilderness, but it needed Barcelona’s unique blend of architectural time travel, artistic rebellion, and sensual atmosphere…
-
The Doors We Fear to Open: Finding Courage to Cross New Thresholds
We encounter them daily—unopened doors that we hesitate to push open. The job application never submitted. The conversation perpetually postponed. The creative impulse repeatedly ignored. The relationship that remains unresolved. These thresholds exist everywhere in our lives, silently waiting for the moment when our courage finally outweighs our fear. In my novella The Purging Room, Phoenix…
-
About
I’m Randy, an artist whose insatiable curiosity and passion for experience routinely outpaces conventional wisdom. My journey weaves through multiple creative terrains—from music to writing, from entrepreneurship to wilderness adventures. As an author, I’ve explored the intersections of spirituality, creativity, and authentic living through works including A Renaissance Redneck in a Mega-Church Pulpit (memoir), My Confession, The Loss of…
-
My First Novel is Here
Successful businessman Phoenix Adams has it all: wealth, status, a beautiful wife, and a respected position as an elder in his church. Yet as he lands in New York after closing the biggest deal of his career, an overwhelming emptiness threatens to consume him. When a business acquaintance directs him to an unmarked door in…
-
Freedom
Personal Freedom: Definitions, Dimensions, and Dilemmas Personal freedom is one of humanity’s most cherished and contested values. From ancient philosophical debates to modern political movements, the concept of freedom has inspired revolutions, shaped constitutions, and defined individual lives. Yet this seemingly straightforward ideal—to be free—reveals layers of complexity when examined closely. What constitutes true freedom?…
-
Communion
Communion with Others: The Art and Importance of Human Intimacy In its most fundamental sense, communion describes a profound state of shared understanding and connection between people. This deep intimacy—physical, intellectual, emotional, and sometimes spiritual—represents one of humanity’s most vital needs and greatest challenges. When we achieve genuine communion with others, we transcend the boundaries…
-
Curiosity
The Power of Curiosity: Humanity’s Greatest Driving Force Curiosity, that instinctive desire to know and understand, has been the silent engine behind humanity’s most outstanding achievements. From the first human who wondered what lay beyond the horizon to modern scientists probing the depths of quantum reality, curiosity has propelled us forward as a species. It…
-
Sensuality
The Art of Sensuality: Engaging the Full Spectrum of Human Experience At its essence, sensuality is the art of experiencing life through our senses. It represents a heightened awareness of the physical world and our body’s interaction with it. Far more than merely sexual, sensuality encompasses the full spectrum of sensory experiences that make us…
-
The Four Most Important Words In Life
These four words determine our capacity for enjoyment. They provide meaning in life. And they have the power to quieten the confused noise within. These four words paint a stunning panorama of one’s most passionately held beliefs and ideas. They comprise all the affections, the thoughts, the joy, and the faith of a lifetime. They…
-
Drinkin’ the Koolaid
Original Pen and Watercolor on Art Paper March 2025 — 45.5 x 61 cm
-
We Are Becoming Spaniards
It really hit us when we had American guests this past year. Afterward, Gina and I commented that we felt different. It was intangible then. But as I pondered it, a few thoughts began to form. The Spanish lifestyle is so radically different that after a year-and-a-half of immersion, it can’t help but affect us. …
-
Saturday–AI (Artificial Intelligence) Changed My World Forever
Five times in my life, technology changed my life forever. I call them “cracks in time.” The first time I heard the silky sound of a cassette after a lifetime of scratched LPs (1966), the first time I listened to the digital sonority of a Compact Disc (1978), the first time I heard the weird…
-
Unholy Yearnings
My tender and urgent longings as a sensual adolescent soon clashed with the harsh reality of a prudish religious upbringing. And for over forty years, I suppressed my gnawing hungers, my incessant desires, and my carnal fantasies. But a single touch of a friend sent courses of electricity through my being and cast a hot…
-
An Easier Way To Be
For the past two decades, I have been learning that it’s all right not to do everything people expect of you. This idea has been positively liberating for me. The way we were raised—the way our institutions raised us, I mean—trained us to think it’s our job to be correct in everything we do. Others’…
-
I Survived Hell
As anyone who knows post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will tell you, days and nights can be unpredictable. It can be the brightest day, in the loveliest place, or the most cozy night, nestled in cotton sheets, and you still feel like your being is sucked dry. I fight a relentless battle with shame, fear, guilt,…
-
The Artist as Dionysus
Let us give masculinity back its flowering wand of reciprocal relationship with the natural world.Let us call Dionysus to the gates of our cities and homes.A man who can dance with plants and honor beasts, a man who can be a woman and an androgen and an animal, is more than a gender.He is a…