Information please; not marketing

I get the goal behind marketing.  It's the modus operandi I despise.

At a local Farmer's Market the farmer's marketing is about how healthy the produce looks. It's about the vibe of the farmer (do they care about the food they grow?)  Purchases are made based on personally verifiable experiences.

I distinguish "putting your best face forward" marketing from corporate and gullible-for-profit, follow-the-leader marketing that uses coercion, persuasion, shaming, comparing, guilt-mongering or any other fast and easy means of profit.

Wolf in sheep's clothes marketing looks like a simple person's legitimate dream: life's good, you're beautiful, here's your answer, you're in the know......It looks like nostalgia, sentimentality, community.... 

"How can I sell it?", "What do people want to hear?"
"....wearing xyz tampon will transport you to a high mountain meadow bursting with wildflowers where you and all the women who love you will be doing triple cartwheels in the dappled sun with a cool breeze blowing."  Has any milieu fallen harder and gotten buried deeper in BS than NOW?

I'm all for every person or group of people developing and communicating their authentic accomplishments with great enthusiasm.  I just ask - please do it in a way that doesn't literally suck the life blood out of other people. Grant others the freedom to decide for themselves whether they want what you offer or not. 

(Kudos to the many who are already doing this!)

"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us"  Marshall McLuhan

Split Wide Open

Seeds can remain dormant for a very long time.

How does a seed feel with that first crack in its hull?   What's happening when life awakens within and exits the shell?

The seed may hopefully land on compatible soil, get watered, the sun may shine and the rain may fall.  If that happens - Life busts out of the seed and grows and grows - it flowers, dies back and flowers again.  All along it reaches for and needs the Sun.  Thus begins the great mystery.

How is that first crack experienced by the seed?.....how does it feel when the first light floods in - when the switch is flicked from sleep to awake; like a trigger is pulled?  like a volcano erupting? like the very first fire?

Technology, the great time sucker

The blog I started when I moved up to Santa Fe is no more.  I don't care to say much except that technology is not all it's chalked up to be.

In laymen's terms money was paid, services were *so* not delivered, data was lost, and costly time ensued. 

My web host did give me a complete refund on a year of hosting so I'll abstain from naming, bad mouthing, (or recommending) them at this time. 

In the meantime- I'm back sheltering at thunder-earth.

These one way people gonna mow us down

I'm having a recurring fantasy of someone (pick your super hero) mowing a huge swath in a perfect circle around the Earth. It will be a path people can walk and stay safe on. It will be a pathway that goes around and around and around with no end.  People can safely walk it with their children's children's children but in my fantasy they won't move off the mowed swath until they tolerate.  I mean this:

tol·er·ate/ˈtäləˌrāt/Verb

1. Allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference.

My fantasy imagines all the one-way people walking this swath - and I don't for one minute mean just the religious kind - I mean every single human being out there who is compelled to diss down, scorn, mock and nay-say whatever is not their schtick: those peeps who in order to keep their own world conception going -  must attack other people doing things a different way.

(The tolerant ones are gonna be rockin' the world in my fantasy.  We're gonna be dancing, singing and sharing food.  We're going to respect and honor creativity and all that means.  It's gonna be a Golden Rule World!)


I know I'll find raw-foodists, conventional foodists, organic, and non-organic folks, democrats, republicans, gays, straights, bis, and trans, atheists, every religion, every brand of MBTI, every astro-sign, every kind of group in this bigger group no matter which sub-group makes you feel like king of the hill.  If you need to attack and dismantle other's world views to hold onto your own - in my fantasy you get to be walking the path with the one-way people. (from time to time you will find me there too - it is afterall a fantasy: a hope for the future!)


I admit I feel infuriated these days by people who can't hold their own ground without putting others down. Find your place and stand proud people! You could be so, so not like me and I will clasp your hand and shout to the sky "well done" - looking you straight in the eye - human to human -  if you can carry your banner without intolerance for people who don't mirror you to you.


We aren't all cut out of the same mold. We don't, in fact, share the same perspective in space, time or experience.


Find your place, that place you choose and know to be true for you, and stand your ground folks. We are learning to be who we are. That's got all kinds of evolutionary possibilities. Free will, independence, peer based creativity .... mutual respect, courage, strength.....

Acetycholine - a little essay about Science

I'm not much of a science girl anymore.

It's a done there been that kind of thing with me.  I took oodles of chemistry, microbiology, anatomy and physiology back at the university and in the end I threw it all off for English Literature at great but worthy cost.

The truth is that hydrogen and oxygen molecules never struck me as terribly real - nor did they excite me in a way that reverberated the "this is true to life!" explanation I chase.

An explanation has to ring authentic in my mitochondria for me to stand by it.

Knowing the molecular weight and covalent bonds of empirical table elements doesn't strike that chord in me - blame my genetic code.

However I ever cheer the tuning and co-playing of my instrument of understanding to all other sane, ethical beings.  Our instruments play the world.

Not at all on the same track but somehow relevant to me - dissecting a cadaver left me feeling I'd conquered repugnance but not that I understood one wit more what a human being is.  {We pulled on Jane Doe's dead tendons and her arms moved... woohoo?}

I sort of liked Physics - and to be truthful I'd burn the midnight hours by starting a chapter and becoming so intrigued by the ideas that I had to head into the forest so to speak, in order to follow something very very cool.  But as a result I didn't do well on exam questions like this:

  "A window washer pulls herself upward using the bucket-pulley apparatus show in Figure (the woman is in a bucket, a rope tied to the top of the bucket, and she's pulling on the downward direction of rope that goes up over the pulley) (a) How hard must she pull downward to raise herself slowy at a constant speed? (b) If she increases this force by 10 percent, what will her acceleration be? The mass of the person plus the bucket is 65 kg."

These questions did not awaken me but left me frantically wondering what the hell I was doing pursuing "higher" education.

And I'm ashamed to admit my girlfriend and I flirted shamelessly with the TA in lab and that is how I passed physics.

My physic's professor, Owen Chamberlain, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1959.  He was a genius and also the worst teacher I have ever had in all my life.  I don't mean to say anything here except he was an amazing researcher and truly good person who was forced to teach to make his pay by the Man.  

He would madly write equations on those miraculous chalkboards in PS2 at Berkeley- filling one - pulling down the next one filling that one etc. - (all of us madly trying to keep up by scratching facsimiles into our notebooks) - then he'd stop and stand still for a few moments.  "No, No" he'd say and then he'd start erasing like crazy blackboard after blackboard.

By the end of the year - only a handful of students showed up in PS2.   They must have been telepaths or something.(looks like things have changed a bit - now you can at least not show up and still hear the lecture while you wait for the doings and undoings of your local Nobel Laureate.)

You can see why Literature is a better calling for me.  It's much kinder to meanderers and those whose ideas are ever changing.

Still I have a kudo to pass to Science right now and it's in the form of Acetycholine.  It's a long story but here's the short form.

From the Psychological standpoint:  There are Introverts (people energized by solitude and deep thought) and Extroverts (party down folks who love to socialize and take things at "face" value.)
 
From the Physiological standpoint: Extroverts are proven to use the Dopamine/Sympathetic nervous paths of the brain.  If you're of that ilk have you researched taking Dopamine?  That might be a very bad idea so don't mind me!
 
But if what I've found true about Acetycholine is true for Introverts then any of you who know you walk that road should look into it....

I'm an Introvert and our physiological path according to the scientists is the Acetycholine/Parasympathetic path.

I have been feeling utterly stressed lately and so I decided to give my "throttle-down" system - the system of choice for Introverts a boost.  The old scientist in me decided to give molecules a chance this weekend so I went down to Natural Grocers and got me some Acetycholine in the form of Alpha GPC plus some Huperzine-A for staying power (stops Acetycholine from getting broken down.)

I have to admit - molecules and the like still strike me as less apparent explanations of the world than Geb and Nut but I'm of a phenomenological  persuasion and in the end, as apparent, the Alpha GPC and Huperzine-A are mellowing the harsh no. doubts.  I just wanted to pass on that these two little over the counter introverted/acetycholine/parasympathetic stimulating molecular combos do dance up in a very convincing way in my test group comprised of two Introverts!  :)

Sadness is not Depression.

It's OK to feel sad

in honor of my Mom's 2011 Life Journey

♥ ♥ ♥

My Dad passed away 6 months ago and I still feel very sad, for myself, but especially for my Mother. My Mother is learning to live without her partner of 57 years and many days as her confidante, I live through that with her.  It's not happy.  It's often pretty gut wrenching and steeped in tears but it's real. I've learned so much from my Mom's rhythm of honoring her grief but also being strong.

Is sadness the great demon or is the demon the social pressure to be up and fueling everyone else's tank with optimism 24/7?  I am so proud of my Mom for her integrity this year - and that includes that she allows herself to feel her very real grief without excuse but without indulgence either.  It hasn't been a "good" year to say the least but it's been a brave year - it's been a year of watching my Mom's gritty determination to persist in the face of the abyss that's left me in awe of the woman who ushered me into this magical, crazy place called Earth.
♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥

Home Sweet Home

My partner and I have moved 7 times in the last 11 years but I think we're home.

One of the habits we got into during all these moves is to not bother hanging pictures or otherwise sweet homing our home - and because of that home has become  increasingly spartan with every move.

Now I'm not knocking this because there's something really, really good about spartan in my book.

Still....

I just got back from the Tucson Gem Show where I usually spend my time buying inventory for a little side business I have.  But this year we took some Christmas gift cash stash and bought stuff for the house.  Not practical stuff....pretty stuff ♥

I spent today finding places around our house for all the treasures we picked out at the show mostly Tibetan and Nepalese wall hangings which we got to buy straight from the artists.  Up until now we had white walls in every which direction and little to no anything that wasn't 100% practical.  Now there's alot of crazy beautiful art festooning the walls!

I'm a bit stunned at how sweet it feels in here....just like Home Sweet Home!  :D

The Huichol

Every once in awhile - don't you find something / see something - that resonates with you exactly?  I felt that way when I saw some Huichol art at the Tucson Gem Show last year.

Every day I was at the show I made a visit to the room where a group of Huichol Indians were selling their beautiful crafts.  After the first visit I was hoping to buy pieces from them for my store which is why I was at the show, but I also just loved being in their room.

Those guys had a presence of soft spoken, sweet energy that welcomed you with no words. Just walk into the room (a cheap hotel room converted into a wonderful world by their art being spread across every surface) and things felt remarkable - like stepping into another world.  Human beings are capable of so much - just by being there those Huichols made a peaceful and magical space!

I'm also a lover of bright, rich colors.  My office and bedroom are both full of bright colors: orchids, flowering plants and bright woven fabrics.  Those colors wake up a part of my brain where new thoughts burgeon.  So Huichol art which is all about explosive color is perfect for my temperament.

Most of all I love how the Huichol's vision sees everything as alive.  That is what I see when I move around the world too.  With my eyes I see there is spirit in everything informing us and yet in a way it is invisible too - not everyone sees this.  It seems to many this phenomena is completely invisible :(

I feel gratitude to the Huichols for showing that life is bursting out of everything so beautifully in their art.

If you live in New Mexico - there's a really incredible Huichol exhibition called "Balancing the World" at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe right now.

There are also a series of talks coming up at the O’Keeffe Theater at the museum and I am especially interested in the the one given by Dr. Peter T. Furst on Nov. 7

I'm a bit overwhelmed by this all right now.  I've been trying to take in the Huichol mythology which has amazing ideas about the shadow (ala Jung) which I am very interested in these days.  There are also profound immediate problems the modern Huichols are undergoing which breaks my heart and which I want to help with.

Mother

My counselor once told me - you will never find your Mother in a flesh and blood person.  I had been hoping I could expect my partner of many years to fill that role......but I know that's not fair.  I'm not everything to him - how can he be to me?

She told me - you may find your Mother in a tree or in a place...not trivially - like a lame substitute....but for real.  The real Mom who holds and says OK...you're here...and you are mine.

Shortly after that - I found her in a grove of trees.

I found her in the White Place:

Nurturing is a real thing.

I am a Techno Quaker!

Do you ever wonder about what attracts you and why? I personally have a rather schizophrenic combination of attractions and luckily even the oddness of my pairings is one of the things I'm attracted to. I love pairing things that don't "belong" and seeing what happens!

My parents are both Mennonites and we come from a stream of inter-marrying Mennonites heading back to the 14th century when Menno Simons formed the group. My great-Grandma spent all of her early life moving around Russia and even deeper into the East in a wagon train - trying to find a place where the community could settle and practice Pacifism. Promises from leaders like Catherine the Great allowed temporary settlements where - in exchange for civil services like dike building - my ancestors did not have to fight in wars. Those promises were eventually always broken and finally my great-Grandma ended up in Canada where eventually my Grandma and my Mom were born.

The Perfect Day

Things have been trying in every way for the last month. Murphy's law at every bend...... But today was the perfect day!

First I got to sleep in - my back appears to be healed and I slept ALL NIGHT - I've been lying awake half the night for a few weeks.

I've been trying to negotiate some support at work. I have some radically high maintenance clients and my team is not backing me up. I wrote a desperate email on Friday night arguing my case and several higher ups came through with real game plans that should make next week maybe something like normal.

Alex makes the BEST breakfast burritos - and he put those together while I ran around the house rounding up rain gear for our trip to Santa Fe. The weather forecast this morning was 70% precipitation but we really needed to get out of town. And sometimes a walk in the rain is a very good thing.

The ride up to Santa Fe was just gorgeous. The clouds! The Light! As we came closer there was a thick white wall of rain.

We headed up Old Pecos Trail to meet our friend Sally at Peyote Bird's Tent Sale. Sally and I worked together at PB 16 years ago - but I've been long since gone while Sally's still hanging in there. I got a bag full of amazing bling for ridiculous prices. If you have nothing to do tomorrow and need some new jewels and you live in Northern NM then the sales on tomorrow too- 414 Old Taos Highway - you'll see the tents.

I love books - lots and lots of books!

and I love hearing about what books other people are reading...

Carl Jung - the psychologist noticed and heavily documented two broad categories of human beings: Extroverts (those who feel revived and fueled by spending time with other people) and Introverts (those who need to be alone with their own thoughts to recharge their batteries.) I am definitely of the latter type and reading is one of my favorite solo, rejuvenating activities.

I've gotten more and more comfortable over the years having a stack of books going - depending on my mood - I have a choice - and that means more reading (rejuvenating) time. Here's my current stack - and I am enjoying every one of them. And now that I look at the photo - I see I left a few books out of the stack. Journeys though Inner Space by Hue Walker (local Albuquerquean FullDome Artist) - thought provoking poetry and paintings and The Beginner's Guide to Quantum Psychology by Stephen Wolinsky which I've just barely started to dabble in.

I've spent most of the hours of the last couple of days - couchant (lying down on the couch) - reading "Seven Types of Ambiguity" by Elliot Perlman. It's been AGES since I've managed to burrow into a book I love like this for hours on end with no guilt, occasional snacks, the swamp cooler purring away - it feels so darn good!

I try to read every night and for 2 or 3 hours during my weekly Friday jaunt to Cafe Giuseppe but sometimes my reading time is cut woefully short by the tiredness of the day. In the evening, I wake up with me glasses on and the light burning and begrudgingly, groggily admit my reading for the night is done. Still - I manage to get through alot of great books every year and I'm always looking to expand my horizons.

I love hearing what books other people are reading...

So if you are reading something you are really enjoying these days, let me know and I'll add it to the potential reading list!

Mood Enhancers - Heads Up to your favorite EO!

I've written about Essential Oils before but I have a feeling I'll be writing about them many more times before I kick the bucket. AROMATHERAPY!

If you have a hectic life - then dropping a few drops of EO (essential oil) on a cotton puff or just opening the bottle and taking a whiff - can quickly bring grounding and calmness, energy and goodness without alot of time out.

I'm loving my local herb store's mixes. I stop by often and check out the dozens of test bottles they have. Most don't excite me much and it takes a bit of time to find scents that I get a lift from.

Clary Sage is an example of an EO that doesn't always thrill me but I love the Herb Store's version and I have used it in my office alot lately. It DOES reduce stress.


Today I walked out of the Herb Store with a bottle Juniperus Communis (Juniper Berry). It's an itsy bitsy bottle so tiny it has an air of preciousness based on size. I've checked out Juniper Berry many times and it's been overwhelming but the Herb Stores rendition is just right. I've been checking in with this scent all afternoon and this little bottle will be on my desk through the coming weeks for sure!










My office mainstays are Eucalyptus and White Texas Cedarwood. I have a small oyster shell on my desk and a another by my bedside with cotton puffs that I douse daily or several times daily with 5-10 drops of EO. I've had people really curl up their nose at my choices which tend towards tree scents so if you are interested - enjoy the fact that smell is an idiosyncratic choice - most good things in life are. Eucalyptus and White Texas Cedarwood are two of my true BFF. They always always always give me a lift.

Lately I've found a few new additions that are very welcome and I encourage anyone to check them out.


The first is Wild Chammomile. This is a tiny bit costly....compared to your average EO. It's $30 for a .5 fl oz. bottle and I seek out the Health Dept in Whole Foods every week on shopping day to sniff and enjoy but I have not been able to bring my practical self to buy it. Watching from the sidelines - my partner Alex surprised me with a bottle for my birthday last week and I was/am smiling from ear to ear.

My other new favs are the above mentioned Juniper Berry and Clary Sage.

I'm pretty sure not everyone reacts to smell the same way I do because if they did - they'd be pulling out an Essential Oil bottle and taking a big whiff the same way people light up cigarettes or check their phones for messages.

I am transported by certain scents - and I don't mean the chemically stuff - I mean distilled plant and tree essences.

Plants and Trees are here to help us! That's my take anyway. And I'd encourage anyone to try it out at any local store that has testers - it can't hurt to try!

Truce and Tea

We were zonked this morning - too tired to hike or go on an adventure but definitely needing a break from home which is also where we work. We decided to start the day by going to Annapurna Chai House for tea and a little hang out time.

When you work at home - you have to get out for a bit each day - but your get-away needs to be many things: close to home, worth the effort, and a true break from your home office; that place where you live out so, so many hours of your life.

Work's been stressful with deadlines - and Annapurna's Chai House is relaxing. The walls are each painted in several deep jewel tones - gold, red, mauve ... there are richly embroidered and textured curtains blocking off an enticing sitting area in the corner ... wood carved screens allow the light in but block the view of the traffic from 4th Ave outside - this place has very good feng shui. There are beautiful fabric saris draped over exposed ducts on the ceilings. I love this juxtaposing of no nonsense utility with whimsical and ancient beauty.

Robust and healthy plants hang here and there from the ceiling. The place is well lit and soft bhajans are playing in the background.

Although the place is often packed, the people who work here are consistently and reassuringly mellow, friendly and on top of it. It's my new favorite place. They have kick ass Chai and double layer, spelt flour, vegan carrot cake that is the best carrot cake of any persuasion that I have ever had. Folks - please believe that food can enhance your well being - and your taste buds too! It's really true.

We usually have a quick sit down and then it's back to work we go...but today is Saturday and we had nothing on the agenda. We didn't want to talk about work (god forbid!) but that's so easy to do when you are coming down from a heavy dose of it. To prevent that we drew a Tarot card before leaving and decided we'd spend our tea time talking about the card we drew.


The card we drew was Truce (the query was what card should Alex and I talk about at Annapurnas!)

Truce, the Four of Swords, was the perfect card for today. Truce is a kind of a crazy concept....so important in the larger order of things and also a bit paradoxical. It requires the effort and strength to back off - which is harder and requires more conscious honing than the strength to charge forward does.

To slow down, to remember that responsibility might involve giving ourselves some breathing space....that's the hard part in this world.

***

Working at home - making Truce with the work vs. home is an ongoing need for the self employed - and it often helps to create a little ritual around the down time part.

Tea - for some reason seems to work for us. In addition to Annapurna's as a get away, we have several made-up versions of the venerable tea ceremony. Albeit they are more off the cuff and don't require formal attire.

Here are some of my favorites:

My sister gave me a glass tea pot and a few dozen flowering tea buds for Christmas. The whole act of making this tea forces you to slow down and enjoy the roses. I'm hooked.

Another favorite tea ceremony of ours is making Matcha Tea.

Matcha is the creme de la creme of teas - pampered and indulged all along it's planting, growing and processing cycle - it ends up as a fine green powder. It's the tea that's used in authentic Japanese tea ceremonies.

The very act of preparing Matcha requires slowing down and getting into the moment...calling a truce with time.

Baby Steps

My FB friend Bharati has been writing alot lately about good deeds and walking our talk. Her daily reminders have gotten me to spend a bit of serious time thinking about what I want to do and what I actually do and the difference between the two.

I love spring water and go through about 6 liters a week....Trader Joe's spring water...the kind that comes in plastic disposable bottles. My partner drinks about the same so that's 12 plastic liter bottles/week in our recycling bin. It's not headed towards landfill because I am a religious recycler. But it is wasteful, IMO, when I consider all the effort and energy that goes into this bottle that I will drink from for a day and then toss only to repeat those effort and energy requirements. This weekend I went out and got a drinking water jug that I can use and reuse. I admit I wanted glass just couldn't find it so I got a BPA-free plastic jug. And that's going to replace my TJoes water. No more plastic drinking bottles in the recycling.

Another - most likely harder one - is all the to-go cups I run through. My partner and I duck out for coffees or teas every other day and bring them back to the office. Our office trash bins have quite a collection of to-go cups in them by the end of the week. So part two of cleaning up my drinking act was to order a Nissan drinking cup which I hope, pray and demand of myself to remember when I'm heading to Annapurna's for tea or Guiseppe's for my Americano. To me these two little acts represent a bit more sanity taking over areas of my life where my actions don't yet jive with my ideals.

Hooked on Moxa

I got hooked on Moxa when I spent a summer at the Naturapaths getting NAET treatments. Every night they burned Moxa to cleanse their offices and the scent came to be associated with their offices but also it just smelled good to me.

Several years later I bought a small Moxa burner (called a Gu Pan Holder) and a package of smokeless Moxa from an Accupuncture supplier and I occasionally burn it in my office. I notice it really reduces my stress levels and while it's hard to describe why - it leaves me feeling very satisfied in a long term way. After I burn it the whole house is redolent with Moxa and, for me, it causes a recurring inward smile.


Moxa, made of the herb Mugwort, is used extensively in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet and Mongolia. It's ground up and then processed into a shape that looks like a fat, squat stick of incense which is then burned.

Chinese medicine uses mugwort to stimulate blood flow and to protect against dampness and cold. It's sometimes used with acupuncture or in a similar way as accupuncture, but without the needles. The Moxa burner is placed directly on the relevant meridian points. It is said to add new energy to the body.

Native American Indians consider mugwort a sacred plant of spiritual healing and sprigs of it can be found included in smudge sticks.

Old European lore records mugwort being place under pillows to provoke dreams.


I bought my burner and pack of 200 moxa sticks at Acu-Market for around $8.00.

Freedom, Liberty and Justice for all this Christmas

I want everyone to get along but I also want everyone to be against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I want them to be vegetarian, and to respect President Obama and despise Bush, McCain and Palin.

Or is that what I want?

I think what I really want is to live side by side with others who may not believe what I believe but who will accept there is reason behind my being against war and any kind of needless killing, whether it be human or animal. I believe the world needs idealists - and I certainly was created as one! If i try to run and hide from that - it just sneaks back and bites me in the ass. The older I get the harder it bites.

I understand there are arguments and that I don't have all the answers but I still have to be true to what's in my heart like all people do. Like everyone, the more I feel people understand where I'm coming from the "better" and more comfortable I feel, but lately I don't feel comfortable, I feel terrible. I feel the sharp line between "conservatives" and "liberals", "republicans" and "democrats" as a biting pain, it cuts my heart in a way very reminiscent of the heartbreaks I felt when I first fell in love and understood what true love really entails.

I can't believe 30,000 troops are being sent to Afghanistan and that we still can't wake up to how wrong it is to kill families: mothers, grandmas, children, fathers, brothers in other countries just because they practice a different religion or aren't American or because we want what they have. These are our fellow human beings and there is no logic, no fear, nothing anywhere that makes it OK for us to kill each other! But there I go again....

It's hard not to band together with those who share the same comfort zones and to feel that everyone else is an "alien." As an idealist I'm in the unfortunate position of not being able to just move on as if all of the hate and fear flying around doesn't effect us all. I believe in love and I believe every one of us is connected.

On that note, I don't usually get a Christmas tree because I don't like the idea of chopping down a perfectly good tree just to stick it in the house for a few weeks and then throw it into landfill a few weeks later .

I lived for several years in a Cottonwood grove and throughout my life have had very real relationships with living trees. So for me, not for you, for me....buying a live tree this year is meaningful and sums up what the holiday is all about. I've already picked where I will plant my Aleppo Pine in the backyard next year. For now, he is beautifully adorned and blessing our living room. Alot of the ornaments are handmade by my mom who is a Republican and supports war and who is the number one person who never let's me give up on those who are so very different than me in every way but who I love completely.

Love wins in the end every time but how much sweeter could it be if we gave each other freedom and liberty and justice too.

Aromatherapy for the skeptical

Yes , I know....it sounds a little flaky to some of you all - to think that a smell can change your mood. But I have to say you're not thinking too hard when you think that. You are triggered by your nose buds all day long.

Your nose is actually the gateway into some very fine and uplifting experiences you might be missing - even though you are probably more than aware of the smells you want to avoid for their adverse effects.

---

Here are some good scents that work for me:

Feeling ungrounded?...a little spacey?... Try Eucalyptus Oil and Cedar Oil (5 drops each) on a cotton ball in the area where you are trying to get something done - I affirm that this works for at least some people, namely me! :)

Smelly smells from the outside world that don't dial your personal number - for me it's that indescribable toxin they currently add to laundry detergent and dryer sheets that then floats out and permeates the neighborhood or sometimes the more benign loved one's garlic laden epicurean concoction....if your nose is stressed, try 10 drops of lime and 5 drops of spearmint and filtered water to fill a 3oz. spray bottle to bring the nostril stress level down to peace and harmony in no time. What a relief!

We react like heck to our nose but also blow it off. Treat it to some fineness. You will be surprised how in touch your nose is with your moods.

I like Aura Cacia's scents and while some of them are very pricey, some are quite affordable and it's not necessarily qualitative. Less expensive does not mean less intoxicating.

Only the nose-dead diss Aromatherapy.

Geo-Vibes

There are places on Earth that have power to rejuvenate and revitalize people. Often these places underlie the decisions to place certain buildings where people gather.

Not that all such places attract every type of person - on the contrary - each person can find the places that rejuvenate them.

St. John's College in Santa Fe with Sun Mountain to the left and Moon Mountain to the right

I'm not sure when Alex and I first started spending time at St John's College in Santa Fe - probably 20 years ago. It's come to be a favorite place - a place we return to again and again because we always feel good when we are there. We sit by the Koi pond and listen to the waterfall. (I was surprised today the Koi were awake because there's already been snow and thawing in Santa Fe this year.)

We spend hours (and $) in the kick-ass book store and we hang out in the "lounge" which has humongous windows with an amazing view of the Santa Fe foothills.

Looking out windows of the student lounge

The vibe here in the land and at the school is a bit austere - relaxingly so for the likes of us. It's very peaceful and contemplative. One overhears the conversation of "bookish" folk and being of that sort ourselves we feel at home here - a haven of sorts where the vibe, for us, is a kind one.

Beckon

I am a bit of a word junkie. My dictionary is always close at hand and I especially love etymology - which is the science of where the word came from in the first place.

I woke up this morning beckoning. That's what my mind told me.... I woke up steeped in the thought that I was beckoning something towards me. I was beckoning what I want - good things, joyful things, creative things...love.

All this happened under the covers with eyes closed. It's Saturday morning and I lay there drifting in and out of Saturday morning sleep, awakening on and off to the "I don't have to get up" feeling. But as soon as I do get up - I head to the dictionary definition of "Beckon"

Just like it feels - it is a rich word - it means more than "seeking or asking" - it adds a gesture, an active summoning or signal.