Redirection

If you have been reading the wonders and babbling of this blog, please now travel on over to By My Red Hand, my new home.

Many blessings as we welcome the turn of the wheel, and the veil begins to thin...

Where Am I? Untangling the web...

I'm still in a cave metaphorically speaking, but I'm clearing space and spinning new ideas about this blog, and joining it with my other blog that I originally began to discuss Feri subjects.

So look for a shift coming any day now.

Press on!

AIRR is available now

This is interesting.

Retreat

That's me. Now. Here.

Be back soon.

She of the Seed Moon

Iit's my birthday this month. I was a late baby, showing up 3 weeks after my alleged arrival time. Born under the Seed Moon, the month of April. A time to push your hands under the cloak of soil, carefully nest your seeds deep amidst the dark stars as you hover above and nurture the truth. Tears for water and hearts to feed from, little things will fester, mighty things will grow...

Soon, I will have been blessed to reside here on Earth 41 summers, 40 winters, and just about 507+ moons (yes, I did the math). That's 14,985 days, give or take here and there for Leap Years, a few acid trips (circa 1980ish), three-day drug fests (late 80's, early 90's, I don't want to talk about it but I'm sure that cost me a few days worth), then childbirth and my wedding day (the last two are good for more days added to my life, so great they were!). I won't count the seconds as they are priceless.

I tend to reflect a lot on my birthdays -- I have always made a concerted effort to learn from every moment, to embrace every lesson even if I'm kicking and screaming. And I am beginning to see the bounty of what my Soul planted in that moon, the Seed Moon of 1968. I no longer cringe from the festering things (I might squeeze my eyes shut, but have learned to let them crawl into the light, because I see the futility of denial. Destiny will get you, every time!), I open them wide and lay them on the altar of the wind, the threshing floor of transformation -- and I feast upon the blossoms, delicate yet mighty in their lush beauty.

In keeping will a desire to sow, to reap: I wanted to create a Dream Day of gifts and maybe even events. My motto is Dream Big or Don't Bother, so the following are events or experiences that in my wildest dreams would happen. In reality, there are many reasons that some most likely won't occur right now (money, time, car troubles, children, scheduling) but I'm putting it out there nonetheless.

Maybe not now, maybe not by this summer, but if I plant the seeds then flowers will blossom and fruit will ripen -- all in due time. Finally, I have patience. Mothering in the shadow of Gaia has given me such wisdom. Not enough -- there is never enough, and so I keep reaching to grow and learn, to sing my bones into existance here before my voice is a memory. Never enough, but always more...

Here it is, my Birthday Dream Day(s):

Feeding Your Demons a Prajna Paramita Weekend Retreat in Davis, CA (This is so near to my hometown area that I can't stand it!!) May 1-3rd, 2009 (Beltaine, no less!)

Kapala Training I a retreat at Tara Mandala -- swoon!

Anything with Theresa von Braun (this woman is amazing, a local teacher, healer and medium). Just being in the presence of this woman is uplifting, engaging and ...full of goodness.


A trip to Scotland, and Dunbar castle -- I hail from Black Agnes of the Dunbar clan, as well as Heafy. I want to walk on the land my ancestors did, to carry my blood back to where it came from.


And while I'm at it, not only do I want to feed my soul with beautiful landscapes and experiences, but how about my family?

I need a new kitchen -- we bought our house over 5 years ago now, knowing that it would need a total remodel (for some odd reason, the previous owners ripped out the stove. I have one in my in-law, thankfully!). I have a clear image of what I want, and while it is different from this (a kitchen in the UK, the "Clancy Kitchen"), the feeling, the atmosphere and the rugged look I really love. I want a room where I can cook and visit with friends and family-- somewhere casual enough they can curl up on the couch and chat into the wee hours.








More to come!

Color Me Humbled

Some perspective with my morning coffee, please?



Not only is this hilarious, but so true. And the list is endless of items that we could all add, I'm sure. Our current reality is pretty phenomenal. (No, of course it isn't perfect. Who's fault is that, anyway? [taps chin, thinking...Hmmm?])

Tell Us How You Really Feel, James

Fascinating interview with James Lovelock, the man who came forward with the Gaia Hypothesis. Here's a sample:

Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change?

Not a hope in hell. Most of the "green" stuff is verging on a gigantic scam.

I tend to agree; being Green has become cool, hip -- dare I say it -- trendy. Myself and others in Crunchy circles online have watched this slow and steady decline for years (I was worried about this trend, because the last thing we need for the environment is merely 15 minutes of fame). At first blush, many deemed it exciting that being environmentally responsible was becoming 'mainstream.' After all, the end result would be a better and healthier world, and people, right? It held the promise of all the altruistic inner goodness bottled up within, hiding behind parabens and plastic, being set free at last!


But to tweak a quote from Benjamin Linus, resident villian on Lost (because it's such a great term! So what if he's a fictional character), the status quo is a "Fickle Bitch," and once something hits mainstream it is at the mercy of Pop Culture's voracious appetite. This means that suddenly, packaging and branding the environment is the latest soup d'jour. And once something, anything, becomes a brand it is no longer able to pass the sniff test quite the same. Like curdled milk, people are inherently turned off. Like the sales pitch of a used car salesman, the valuable content is lost to the information.

Now we have products by companies you usually would never consider using (Clorox, for instance) that are getting on the wagon and heading over to the trough (the "Green Works" line -- and look, maybe they're great. But there is this 1% area of petrochemicals...what, exactly, doe sthis consist of?). It was only a matter of time. Thing is, whether it is awesome or not that even the companies that previously were deemed negative by the Crunchy movement have finally, maybe seen the light -- the proof is in the pudding that lasts.

So ask yourself, is this product created by a company that will keep it around when sales drop, or is it merely being produced to capitalize on the moment? (I'm not, by the way, against capitalism. I'm for it. But it certainly has it's dark side. Everything does, really.)

Do the ingredients truly have all natural origins, for instance, or merely some that are 'wholesome' and 'natural', masking the chemicals still present? Many people, even self-proclaimed conscious ones, actually don't read the labels. They trust the commercials, the branding of the products, by companies that spend millions of dollars in marketing (and psychological testing) just to figure out how to best sell their product. This happens with so-called 'organic' food all the time. As I always say, educate yourself! Knowledge is power! Read labels, investigate what those ingredients are and do. Just because a product says 'Organic' on the front doesn't mean squat. It could still be filled will junk.

Caveat emptor has never been more important.

And don't get me started on the whole carbon emissions cap and trade thingie. It's a joke. The classic example of how we take emotional, feel-good intentions and get carried away with them. Instead of actually doing good, we are making it a business to be environmentally responsible. We are putting the environment into the hands of those who create bottom lines.
Do you really want the person with the most money or connections to be the one most able to buy and sell emissions? And what happens to an energy company that can't compete? They start
to pass that cost of those permits and penalties onto us, the customer. This causes prices to rise, and ...well, hopefully you see where I'm going with this. I know that people say that they don't mind, they will pay the price for better air. But historically speaking, what we think we will do and what we actually do are two different animals. When you can't afford the price, what will you do?

I have so much more to say about this, but I need to go clean out my fridge. I smell something bad growing in there...