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Tilt Our World View

My friend just came back from another set of classes in Thailand. I love talking with her, and feeling her wonderful healing and joyful energy. She has just been granted Mastery of the Tao. She has qualified to be an instructor, the only one of the 8 students who have been studying for 5 years! She has great ways of tilting my world view.

She has found a sanctuary for happy elephants in Thailand,  not a place where elephants are worked, or ridden by people, seated along their sides. But where they forage around and one can feed them pumpkins and other foodds good for them to eat. She refused to go to most of the places where elephants were kept, because she wanted to see happy elephants, and she did manifest such a place. They were the only tourists there. how like her to make her dreams come true.

Places which look desolate and barren to me, can be turned into opulent vineyards, fields of dry land wheat, and orchards of fruit trees.  The view of the people looking at them, is totally different from my training of vision. I look at my clients and see them whole, see who and how they were meant to be, and ways to help them help themselves to get there. Thank Heavens for our ability to tilt our world view.

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When the Ground Slips Out

Having ones “feet on the ground” sounds so Centered. Having “Boots on the ground” tells one of first hand information. Having “The ground slip from under your feet” sounds so darn precarious. I hated both earthquakes I have been aware of, the earth should not be heaving and rolling, emptying shelves, cracking open in deep crevasses, emptying ponds and filling new ones. No Way should I have that feeling. But sometimes the earth gives way because the strain from above is too great.

Snow falls, rain falls, and freezes on the snow, and then more snow falls. Trees holding precarious uprightness on steep lopes suddenly feel roots ripping, and boom, over onto their side they go. Sometimes, it really is that little final straw that makes us snap, tilt, break, fall. It may be work, relationships or health, but something we used to be able to cart around with ease, becomes intolerable and we know that the earth beneath our feet had better shift, changing things, or we will find a way to change them bu changing ourselves. And Heaven knows what form that new self will take, what new place we will end up!

When this occurs, having internal flexibility is vital. The earth heaves under the grass and reeds, they wave around like mad things, and then settle back into a way which works for them. The towering oak, the sturdy spruce, end over on their sides, game over. How you choose to stay fluid and flexible, rather than fixed and friable, lies in your hand. Know that the earth will become still, the situation will find stasis, and you could be king of the fast footed dancers, or flat footed and fallen. Always the choice is yours.  

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WHEN LIFE IS A MICHIGLACIER

The mound of snow, resisting melting, turning into ice, we call a Michiglacier as the were everyday winter artifacts when each of us lived in Michigan. We were in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area, upstate, and in the UP the michiglacier cannot grow until Late April! As the land is coated with feet of snow  all winter. I use the term to represent the stubborn remnants of things we are ready to see depart from our lives. Sometimes it’s a craving (cigarettes, alcohol, desserts made with gooey great stuff, bad relationships, gambling etc.) or a bad habit (behaving selfishly, speaking sharply to wound, without thinking the whole thing through, taking the lazy sloppy shortcut) 

Eventually, the sun will melt even the tallest michiglacier, and summer will come. In the upland meadows on Mt Rainier, spring, summer and fall all have to happen in 3 months. The views of flowers, berries and brilliantly colored leaves, rush by, almost as you watch. But those treacherous michiglaciers of the mind, heart and mesentery, hang on for dear life. Where they reside, the forces that feed energy and renewal to the brain cells they hold, are dampened. the energy dies down to a glow that can almost need a spiritual ICU. The good news is, you can create that ICU and that recovery facility in your own body, and for free!

Make the decision to Reframe all negative thoughts (not I am such a loser but I am waiting for my chance to shine. Not the people I work with are horrid, but I wonder what problem, what childhood damage underlies that behavior) Decide on cheerfulness, smile at a stranger, eliminate Resting Bitch Face (it ages one, and cuts off good energy from others reaching us, or even wanting to reach us) Make a decision to speak, kindly and happily thankfully to those who serve/wait on you. It costs nothing to thank a person for working on a weekend or holiday so you can shop/eat/get help. When we force ourselves to think in ways which nurture our inner selves, when we consciously decide to let RBF go, when we make the world a nicer place (even if briefly) for others, we are the Ultimate Receivers of the Blessings of Contentment and Bounty. We are the ones freed from the Michiglaciers of our hearts, minds and spirits. You go!!

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So Much to Do

Mondays always seem to be days heralding far more to do than one day/week should be able to hold. my mom worked at our family store. Monday was never Wash Day for us as it was for all the houses around us. They all had stay at home mom’s, it was the 40′s and 50′s after all. I studied all the magazine photos to see what life was like in “Real Homes” aka the caucasian christian homes the magazines all presented as Real America. those women wore starched, full skirted, flowered housedresses, pearls and high heels.. My mom wore long sleeved blouses, straight plain skirts and “sensible’ shoes, as she had to stand and wait on people 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. I did the laundry from age as we had both a washer, I could reach into when standing on a stool. I did a load when the communal basket was full.

As a teacher, Monday meant a new week of interacting with 150 teenagers, or later two classes of “adults” (there were several High school aged kids, with very adult minds in the program whereby they earned both high school credits towards a diploma, and an A.A. degree. As they were often among the most “Adult” folks in class, I treated them as the adults their intelligence earned them. There were five lesson plans a day, at High School. What worked brilliantly for 1st period of the day,  as the time wore on towards lunch, then towards dismissal, would have been a dismal failure. As a college teacher, only having 2 classes a day was a picnic! I Loved the teaching, hated the meetings, the administrivia, and the interference from folks who knew nothing about the real world in the teaching trenches. Those classes I ever taught, which gave students the right to sign up for the class, always filled very early. That, and the fact that the students chose me to be speaker at graduation every year, did not endear me to the other teachers, and pissed off my principals who had been given orders to “Muzzle the Union Radical” (me).

Now that I am retired, its odd, but Monday is still a day where i tend to plan out the week. This week I shall be speaker at Toastmasters. I will be talking about how to nourish one’s cardiac brain. More on that tomorrow. 

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Headstrong Strong Head?

Most Plants split the earth with their leaves. I have seen Mare’s Tail come up through asphalt, cement and anything else we try laying over its path. Green leaves look even more fragile than roots, yet both have split the obstacles in its way, as if the difficulties never existed. Yet the crocus is not like that. It bursts through the ground flower first! How that works is a total mystery to me. No tough hull, no stiff edge, the soft petals wedge their way to freedom.

If a plant, a living thing we believe to have No Brain, can figure out how to thrust its fragile and frail petals skyward, defeats my ability to comprehend the workings of the Divine Mind. The lesson looks simple, at first glance. Sometimes we just have to lead with our dream, lead with our logic, take a huge Leap of Faith, and Go for It. The trick seems to be, Know when to lead with your head, and learn when tools may be useful for success. 

Out there are Guru’s, Saints, and Sensei, who seem to have discovered (through very long training) how to tell when to lead with the full flowering of our ideas, and when to put out tentative tendrils to check the environment. I am not one of these awesomely trained people. I do have strongly developed Sensor/Feeler abilities, but I have not traveled to sit at the feet of Those Who Know. I only can go with the urgings of my Mesentery Brain. Have I crashed and burned? You better believe I have. Do I Still, try to go full blown idea first sometimes? Yes, at less than a month from 75, I still behave/believe, like a being strongly spiritually motivated, and relatively un-touched by the cynicism of normal old age. I hope to be a Crocus Person, all my Life.

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Freeform Free Soul

I love to learn new skills. I follow the group that believes as long as we are doing new things, learning new things, mastering new stuff our brains stay flexible and viable. Live in the past, die in the present. What used to be called Old Folks Homes, and now have many prettier names (senior communities, assisted living, memory care [in order of functionality]) are filled with shadow people. Their bodies are still with us, needing tender care, as they bruise and tear easily, but their minds are locked in a maze no one can penetrate. I say maze, because they are lost, in a labyrinth, they might wander, but the path will lead them back.

So, I undertook learning about Freeform crochet. Like all Free Form things, it really is a matter of combining things one must learn to do. That meant spending hours in front of my computer, trying to get my crochet hooks and yarn to recreate the shapes and forms the woman on the tutorial did so easily. Many tangled loose or tight messes later, I got the hang of the most basic stitches, and could use the book I bought to create more complex forms. Spirals, and poofs, Popcorns and Tunisian crochet, Bullion stitches, square poofs, tiny pique, all were laid out for my enjoyment. I learned to make wee fans called Limpets, and big swoops that allow one to make irregular forms.

When I was done learning I made a bag for my grandson to carry his cloths for rehearsals in. It is an early graduation present. I hope that he likes the fabric I created. Any guy, who wants to be an actor in Musical Comedy, has got to stand out and this fabric will do its part to aid him in that worthy endeavor. I found that the discipline of learning new things allows me the freedom to assemble mad glory.  Keep opening your mind to new thoughts, nourish your heart, listen to your Mesentery, and you will be forever free. 

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Rejoice in Everything Wonderful

We are trained to expect that Wonderful has to knock our socks off, bowl us over, blow us away. Look at those terms! When does being in accident violent enough to rip off my sox seemed wonderful? OK- I will grant you, that when I came up under the white water rubber raft, and couldn’t get a hand hold, having the current flip off my sock, showed me to push off downward, which saved my life. I feel it’s miraculous. but being shoved off my feet, or or being hit by a blast wave, fail to make me feel celebratory. 

I like to Rejoice in wonderful small things far more. The silence of falling snow is something I rejoice in. The moment a baby grasps your finger, the sound of swishing when you shake a full kitten or puppy, the sharing of good food with friends, all are Miraculous Wonderful things. Oh may, I am teetering on Sound of Music Land. (Another thing that makes me glad, along with Wizard of Oz [the original] and Dumbo) As I am aware that I have way less time to look forward than to look back, I am aware I must not fall into the trap of turning behind me. It hurt Orpheus and its bad for me too.

Instead, I have to make certain to Note, and internally celebrate every small Wonderful thing. I went to the bank and they all said Hi, and my name. It was clear that they were really glad to see me. I like all of the tellers and other folk, and am genuinely interested in them. I found just the colors I needed to make two quick scarves, they had just restocked the section just before I got there. (Wonderful) The Cheap Sushi for lunch was not cheap (we eat a lot of it) but it was a treat to reward myself for getting my tax stuff over to my accountant. (Paying taxes is Not Wonderful, my accountant who had three kids of their own, and then they chose to adopt nine, “hard to place” kids (the old fashioned terms they used back then) as well. Seeing him is like watching someone walk the CHristian LifeStyle, and while I am not a Christian, I sure admire it when someone else really is, and does the hard work. Rejoice

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Internal Guardians

My childhood, Irish next door neighbor, told me that when we are conceived a Guardian Angel is assigned to us to keep us safe from the wiles of the Devil. I fear that many people have failed to heed the words and urgings of their Angels. My LDS neighbor (in married student housing at U of Michigan in Ann Arbor) firmly held to the belief, that before we are born we write out contracts of what challenges we place in our paths on the journey to perfecting our souls for Eternal Life. My recent teacher, a firmly practicing Hindu, believes that our past life actions influence our present life situations, and our way of dealing with those situations, will affect our future lives.

I have evolved a Faith Belief, which I do not expect anyone else to follow, although if you wanted to, I would always welcome company. (ergo I suck at being Joseph Smith or even Amy Semple McPherson) I do believe that we have many lives. I do believe in a place/level called the InterLife. Here we get to review the life we just lived, as well as as many other lives as we need to figure out the flow and flaws. We get to meet with the other members of our group, who we help in their learnings as they help in ours. (ever had that,” this is an old friend feeling?”) not all of them, as some are living while we are in the Bardo (as the Tibetans call it) We decide what we want to improve on, and then create the challenges that will help us to actually make the changes. Then off we go into the new Life. Some are centuries apart as we puzzled and created what we felt we needed.Some take only a few years, as the pathway becomes clearer.

We are all given an Internal Guardian. Most of us are aware of the Heart Brain feelings, which call us to some things and warn us off of others. The big trick for most Westerners, and those the West has co-opted from other civilizations and cultures, is to understand our Mesentery Guardian. That portion of ourselves is most closely aligned to the InterLife and best at giving us “gut feeling, hunches and intuitions. When we listen to Our Internal Guardians, and follow them through to the end, we get where we wanted to be. When we deny them? We get to start over again until we can easily hear their messages, and comfortably follow their advice. Oh, that Internal Awareness thing is so important, the watchdog of the Gods and the Goddess.

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Abundance?!

I have Abundance. What do I mean? Abundance is when you have everything you need and some left over to share. By the monetary standards of the folks around here (I am barely above what is considered low income here, and two of us live Abundantly) I should be sitting wailing in sack cloth and ashes, about having spent my life as a teacher instead of as a Motivational Speaker (a job I was once offered and turned down, because I felt my 13 year old daughter needed her mum around). 

Whenever I chance to feel that maybe I blew it, I run into a former student/their parent and the words of thanks and praise re-color my world. I once had a guy introduce his adult daughter to me as the woman he had so often talked about as influencing and changing his life. Stick that in your Motivational pipe and smoke it! OK, I cannot afford to go on the private tour to Egypt’s historical sites with the man who once ran the country’s antiquities, but I probably don’t have the heat tolerance to go either. I can afford to fly to my nephew’s wedding in Ann Arbor, and take my daughter with me. I can afford to fly down to LA to the Alien Con Convention, and then take a sleeper car back on the train. (my extravaganza 75th birthday gift to myself)  And I shall have an amazingly good time, and make many friends at both. And if they are not exactly walking through the new King Tut Museum after hours, they will make history for me.

We can choose to feel the abundance the Universe wants to give us. Or, we can feel the aching hole of Want, which also lies out there waiting for us. We can CHOOSE to adjust our hard wiring (the born to Half-Empty Syndrome) to allow us to feel Gifted. Or we can sprinkle our heads with the ashes of our fantasies and dreams, and hold the world’s biggest Self-Pity Party. The food is better at the Banquet of Life, the company far more fun and up-lifting. You have the invitation, and the RSVP. Its your choice. 

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Chameleon Appearances

Some things hide what they really are behind a facade. Some Facades are crude as duck blinds built by small kids playing at hunting, or as magnificent as political careers, leading to great power, based on falsified evidence of past success. Sometimes the faux appearance is for fun. During the Christmas garbage strike, folks in Boston wrapped their garbage up as presents and left it in unlocked cars for thieves to swipe. Sometimes the the mis-interpretation lies in the eye of the beholder. Every Magician knows this and depends on it for the “trick” to work. 

When the surprise is a delicious cake baked to look like a succulent, the surprise is a delight. When the unpleasant job is wrapped in a lovely title, things can/will be trickier. (If I know that Chairman of the environmental Committee is fancy speak for cleaning up after the picnic, it is my choice to accept it. If I think Human Services means making certain that people are working in a healthy and good environment, I am in for a rude awakening) When the love object seems strong and purposeful, are they hiding an unpleasant need to control our lives? If so, run away as fast as you can. When the person seems meek and sweetly malleable, are they really skillfully passively aggressive? Ditto the running bit.

All too often we forget the saying “If it seems to be too good to be true, it is.” We buy products which swear to make us look decades younger in moments, which work as long and as well as an egg white mask. (but cost way lots more) We badger doctors into giving us advertised drugs whose eventual list of negative side affects would sink a battleship. We invest in Ponzi Schemes promising us riches beyond belief, even though our granny warned us that we should be wary of taking in those Wooden Horses. Well, enjoy the signs of faux spring, eat the cakes that look like cacti, be wary of tiger traps laid in our paths, and enjoy the shortest month of the year. 

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The Joys of Fantasy

I live in as Linear world, where people strive to get from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible. This makes for an amazing array of gadbets that will do the stuff we used to call “donkey work”. Of course, they tend to crash and burn at the exact most awful moment, so a vast army of folks have chosen to have jobs where they tinker about and get them back on track. If you are a person, for whom technology never fails, I salute you. Not that I belong to your group. Poor Vance spends hours every week “defragging” my computer. He has to “fix” my Kindle and an my phone at least once a month. His energy clears their energy, but my energy entangles them like spaghetti in a can.! (And just as undelectablely I assure you.)

Imagine my joy at finding this tea place!! there, in the heart of the West End of Vancouver, was a place where linear reality took a steep nose dive. The pouf things turned out to be memory foam cushions, the chair was built for me to loll in. I was meant to live there. OK the prices were a lot steeper than the Tim Hortons across the street, but one had better adjust to paying for for ones fantasies. (unless donuts are your fantasy, and then Tim’s your guy) A full “Tea for two is $50. (ok, thats $50 Canadian, and as a person armed with a US credit card, so about $38 dollars would have been the “hit”.) But two big cups of tea, and a treat each was far more manageable.  Sometimes we have to adjust a fantasy a tad. The good news was, once we got seated, there was no line so we were allowed to sit and sip and nibble for over 2 hours.

Very few fantasy moments can be so easily procured. One big problem is that we have to be really clear about what is essential. Is whimsy, comfort and yummy treats going to be enough? do we need a special location? exact company? certain circumstances/emotions? I find that by making my needed fantasy clear, by deciding what is vital and what is nice, and what is frippery, I stand a better chance. To be honest, I never actually created a fantasy world like this one, a cross between Japanese kawai, and Dr. Seuss. But I sure can rejoice in it when it fell into my lap. The biggest trick is being able to recognize, seize, and glory in the moment whenever you get a chance. Enjoy

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No Trespassing: Real/Unreal?

You and I know that there are No Trespassing signs that just make us WANT to trespass. They beckon some adventurous daemon in our wild  and free spirited self, to clamber over the fence/thru the barrier JUST BECAUSE ITS POSTED NO TRESPASS. Had it been simply an unmarked side road, why ever would we want to go there? Growing up in the 40′s and 50′s meant that here were a Hell of a Lot of No Trespassing signs. There were whole careers, as a Girl, (one stayed a Girl unto death as in “the girls at the old folks home play bridge every Thursday afternoon”)  to not even think about. As a white girl, there were whole miles of places where I should not go. (this even meant, crossing the street on the way home, to not to be even Seen walking past the Naval Recruiter station, those Navy Men You Know) 

As the child of Jewish parents there were hospitals as well as colleges and clubs, where folks like me were simply not acceptable. No Trespassing, no “Passing” of any kind wanted. ( to go to college was to court being an old maid, to wear tight skirts meant you were a slut, and no Nice Man would marry you, to have a child as an unwed girl was to be sent away “to visit an aunt”) and come home empty handed and hearted forever. 

Today, even Gender, is not a No Trespassing concept. One’s genetalia are apparently a mere suggestion, not a clear indicator, not a solid marker at all! I like the idea that one can be a man and still like playing with Barbies and wearing brilliant clothing (the Renaissance and the 1970,s show that male humans, like other male creatures , can be gorgeous and not lose face). I like the idea that a girl can want to disassemble a toy, and use legos to build factories, not castles. Kids of any gender can choose Nursing bags or Doctor bags, be a pilot, or a cabin attendant. There are men who Nurture, wonderfully and naturally, and women who DON’T. Choose your No Trespassing signs carefully. Bon Voyage

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See It Believe It?

In this day of sophisticated photo-shopping and widespread computer fraud, we are supposed to be wary of following the old saying “Seeing is believing”. We asre supposed to know that when a caller says they are from the IRS or the Social Security people and then asks us to send them information about ourselves to “double check if it has been compromised”, that, should we do this , will 100%of the time lead to our being compromised, our identity stolen and our bank accounts emptied.

People can fake papers, create fraudulent pasts only experts could detect, and in general run rough shod over us, every single day. Yet, what are we to trust in? I say that we must develop the ability to hone the skills and information gathering, and organizing, of our Cardiac Brains and our Mesentery Brains. As our ancestors did hundreds of years ago, when only a tiny handful of people could read,( let alone write) we have to learn to create strong readers of the hundreds of signals picked up by those two organs. The Cardiac Heart catching the emotional emanations, and the Mesentery Heart being atuned to the things we now call “gut feelings or intuition”. 

I find as I work on trusting them even more than I always have, I am rarely fooled. I am most often fooled if I discard the information they are trying to send, because I don’t want to believe it to be accurate, or I don’t want that outcome. I can, then, partake in fooling myself. (a game we are trained to play from a very early age) I want those protestations of “Love Eternal” to be true, so I overlook the signs everyone else could see a mile away. I want that “Easy Money” so the Ponzi scheme and the phishers of men get away with adding our hard earned bucks to their ill gotten catch. If it’s too good to be true, it isn’t. If its too easy, there is great hardship ahead. But, if the signs are right, and one is willing to work hard at making things work, then Love and Prosperity might just be there waiting for us to immerse ourselves. 

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Acme Diner and Ice-Cream

Yes, there is a town called Acme in Washington State. The fifties diner never got a face lift, so it is now the perfect, red leatherette and chrome Retro Palace. They haven’t changed the Coyote Room bar, dedicated to Wyle E. Coyote, the Everyman of the cartoons. He is Everyman USA. He goes to the same place for his gizmos which work for the Road Runner, and FAIL Spectacularly for him. He chases a dream he will never be able to reach, and fails to enjoy what he has. But, he is a survivor, that coyote guy. He is hit on the head by an anvil, he falls off the cliff, he smacks into the painted tunnel entrance the Road Runner just used to escape from him, and yet he NEVER gives up. Love the dude.

The town is surrounded by fields of free range dairy cows. Their milk goes into the WORLD’S BEST ICE CREAM. There are limited flavors, but they are each so rich and wonderful, one never feels a lack. The menu has things from liver and onions to meat loaf, to chicken fried steak Vance said was the best since he left Texas, and the pork chops are amazing! The prices are geared to a local population, so they are affordable by a retired school teacher, and the wait staff now recognizes us, and treats us as mascot/pets. We do not mind being well treated, and cared for, we do not waste anything on false pride. Being nearly75 means one is aware that pampering is rare, and needs to be blissfully enjoyed.

We only allow ourselves to go there once every 5 weeks or so, because we would become Porky Pigs if we ate there more often. I mean, its the tastiest cooking of of old comfort foods, and the gravy is good to the very last drop! The milk shakes are so thick and plentiful, we split one between us, and the ice cream needs no hot fudge to make it succulent and wildly decadent. Add the willingness to put “a little extra” on already groaning plates, and sugar comas are not far off! Everybody should find their Acme. It will differ due to location and your own personal filters. Be nice, be friendly and kind and respectful, and lap up the treatment folks used to far less will give you. Happy President’d Day! Thanks George for getting us started. Thanks Abe for being one of my two favorite Republican Presidents (National Park starting Teddy, who got stuffed bears named after him, instead of a holiday, is the other)

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Feed the Love

Yesterday was a day , we in the US , and many other places, dedicate to Romantic Love. We act as if that Love, usually more fleeting than dew on the morning grass in high summer, Friendships, marriages and whole family structures get ripped apart by by people (most of whom are numerically adults, but are still locked in teen-aged angst way beyond time) There was a reason Romeo and Juliet were teenagers. They had no mature point of view, no adult problem solving brains (teen’s cranial/aka problem solving brains are growing and maturing just like their bodies) I still ache over the loss of  my first romantic love (I was lucky enough to have 3, none of which lasted more than a few weeks, all of which ended with the knowledge that they were not the basis for a real life relationship, all three are amazing jewels of memories) 

Now, let’s talk about the kind of Love that last through pain and difficulties. The Love that supports us, when our faith and belief in ourselves has hit a low ebb. Some days it almost seems to have hidden itself. Pie of dirty sox, heaps of unfinished paperwork, The chipping away as apparently surely as the river carves the river bank into a canyon, it is simply lying in a pupa/cocoon waiting to burst forth anew when the time is right. Now let us prepare a feast for it, to lure it back into the forefront.

The eggs are the hidden wonders, the rich, nourishment only a bit of work away from revealing itself. The olives and hummus represent the joy of travel to ageless places where in their antiquity, new thoughts and feelings can suddenly bloom within us. The bread is the cycle of life, the shoots, the mature grain, the cutting down, the milling and changing its very being, the baking in hot adversity, only to create something wonderful the shoot could never have even dreamed possible. The meat and cheese represent the mature awareness, that as we change and age, we can get better and better at who and how we are. The vegetables and apples are the gifts that others bring to share with us, the things they have created, made, grown, maybe even nurtured. Feast well my friends.  

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Snowmaggedon

I have lived in the Boston area, getting weather down from Newfoundland. I have lived in Michigan, getting the Montreal Express of winter weather. And I have lived out here in the Puget Sound area since 1976. I have been in snowfalls that have time between the flakes for one to examine a photo of one flake at a time. (Ok a slight exaggeration, but you know the lazy slow one flake at a time fall) I have been in fierce blizzards that knocked out power for days. But never have I been in snowfall like this. Day after day of snowfall, gentle, inexorable snowfall.

Vance went to the Safeway. The roads were OK (some of the other drivers forgot to notice the ice under the snow, so they thought 55 was a safe speed. Well, as the commercial says, “If your brakes won’t stop you, something else will”. The trick is to not be the something else! He got to the parking lot and then could not stand up on the ice in the lot. Neither could anyone else. He decided that the loot made from suing Safeway for an injury after a fall, was not worth the pain and hospital time! So he sat back into the car and left empty handed. OK salt is bad for the fishes in the Sound, but sand is at least something to provide traction. 

I feel like the Queen of the arctic when I look out. A foot of snow piled on our BBQ! and 100% chance of more snow by 3 this afternoon. The fireplace is fabulous, the house is war, we have electricity, and the freezer has food for linner (Large meal eaten around 3 pm) Our neighbors call each other to be sure we are all OK. I called to rearrange a dentist’s appointment, and they were closed due to snow. They say this will continue all week. We may go to Leavenworth, up in the mountains to shop, as they know how to make certain a parking lot is clear and safe. Very strange indeed!! Wherever you are, prepare for Valentine’s Day, by feeding your cardiac brain, and your mesentery brain as well. Love is a grand thing to fill fill all of us. Not Passion, nor lust, but LOVE. 

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Let Your Inner Self Shine

We are told that our Cranial Brain, our Mr. Spock Brain, Our, whatever we use for Logic, brain is the core of our true beauty. I certainly do not wish to denigrate this important organ. Being able to solve life’s puzzles, in an orderly fashion, has saved so many lives, over the milenia, that I cannot think of a good name for the number. To know a certain type of logical thinker’s Cranial Brain functioning, is to know the whole person. It used to be called High Functioning Aspergers Syndrome (in edu-speak, the language of teachers). Now, we simply often refer to such folk, as Computer Geeks. But the way the think has an organic/mathematical beauty.

Many of us have known that our hearts react faster than our so-called brain. It also has its own logic, a way of solving puzzles and working out Life. It is known to be quite different in its make-up. For the Cardiac Brain cells use Feelings (love, hate, awe etc) to develop its concept of reality, and in consequence, its solutions. Who hasn’t wondered at the pairing of an unlikely couple, still in LOVE 30 years later? Who hasn’t experienced the meeting of a person, who in logical terms should be PERFECT, there is totally no spark there. People with active Cardiac Brains make good match-makers. People who try to use only “Logic” are quite often dead wrong. Cardiac Brained folks are absolutely lovely, maybe a bit out of touch with the reality most of us live in, but sooo lovely.

Mesentery Brain people use their Gut Feelings every single day. The Mesentery Brain works on the intangible thousands of items of information, that warn us of danger or spur us forward in the face of “Logical” defeat. The feeling that something is “not quite right” has saved me thousands of dollars over the course of my long lifetime. I have backed out of trips, which turned into nightmares for the folks who went. I have never gambled in card games as I read the Tarot, and have been taught that one does not waste ones energy on fripperies. I have never played a slot machine for more than a nickel. (yep, now that they bottom out at quarters, I don’t even feel a desire to play) People who are in touch with their Mesentery Brain have a true beauty of instinct that is totally awe inspiring. Firing up all three brains, and your inner beauty is overwhelmingly obvious to everyone. Go for it.