12.17.2008 | 9:29 pm | Metaphoric Tightrope Readings
It is time for a dance party. Turn your music up loud, remove any sharp or hazardous objects from the vicinity. Now! Gyrate, wiggle, jump, twirl, shake, grind, spin, hop, step, bounce, swing, bump, shimmy, leap and move! Move your body until your breath is running too fast to catch. Match your pulsing body beat for beat with your heart. Let your hair loose and your sweat fly. Let go! Surrender to a Universal swoon until you are ready to collapse into a convulsing heap. Trust me—you’ll like it.
Comments (0)
12.6.2008 | 5:33 pm | Metaphoric Tightrope Readings
Chop some onion, garlic and lots of peppers—the hotter the better. Stir these up over some heat until they are oozing in their juices. Add peeled & cubed squash, a can of diced tomatoes, lots of hominy. stock and spices, spices, spices! Don’t forget the cilantro and lime juice. Serve hot, sprinkled with your favorites: avocados, tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, more cilantro, or whatever else you love.
A couple years ago, during a wet and rainy January, I thought I was getting divorced. I made a huge pot of this pozole for my partner and I. Because we were so sad, we could barely eat and it took us forever to work through this pot of soup. Since then, “The Soup of Sadness” has become one of our favorites. I recommend it to anyone who is slogging through a mire of wet mushy mopiness. It will dry you out. No sulking, just sweating. Keep your fire hot!
Comments (0)
11.14.2008 | 6:55 pm | Metaphoric Tightrope Readings
Autumn has lifted it’s relentless pelting of damp to bless us with a few days of rays. Everyone is out enjoying the reprieve. However, it is only November. November sings songs of soups and stews, of curling up under a blanket with a good book. November’s song is a lullaby, and lullabies are sweet and safe. They are also siren songs for sleeping souls. Sweet and safe is lovely, and yet it barely stretches the soul. Remember, that even in November, there is a huge world out there waiting to open its gates to those who are willing to risk the wet. Balance your needs, muster your bravery. Your comfort is the price of admission, but the show is not to be missed.
Comments (0)
11.9.2008 | 7:26 pm | Metaphoric Tightrope Readings
Sauntering down sidewalks, the color spectacular of yesterday is collecting in the gutters. Golds, reds and pumpkin browns are covered in water. All the lightness and brightness of transformation is laden, heavy with the damp air of the earth’s darkening days. The wet blanket is only a reminder to keep your own fires burning. Deeper than the dank air can reach, is the vibrant array of your own heart. Remember to keep your fuel at hand, and keep those flames smoldering at all times. Nothing is more valuable right now than the constant heat of your own love. Tend it and nurture it. It is your love that will heal the world.
Comments (0)
11.3.2008 | 12:47 pm | Metaphoric Tightrope Readings
Coffee, sugar, and spices in a narrow ornate kettle. Bring to a boil and let it rest 7 times. Patience. Let the grounds settle, and pour gently from the top a few swallows of sweet thick delightful experience. The process builds the anticipation and the enjoyment. Super-size is not required when we invest in the pleasure of the process. When we enjoy the moments of the journey, getting to the end is merely a technicality.
Enjoy the moments of your day!
Comments (0)
10.30.2008 | 10:01 am | Rants from the Sword of Truth
The world is shifting. Our culture is in need of a makeover. The Earth has been quietly whispering to us through our soles, and we just keep tromping on her. She is the ultimate mother. She has more power than we imagine she has, and she does love us deeply. However, all love must be balanced. As we are all connected, we must look at the good of the whole. When cancer infects a piece of our skin, it is cut out and removed. It takes great wisdom to know what must be held and what must be let go of to maintain the balance of ultimate wholeness.
As human beings we are linked to the Earth. We are a part of her. As we must balance in our own lives decisions about which relationships to maintain, and which relationships are simply draining our resources, so must she. She has done her part. She has given us life, and she has loved us unconditionally. She has bent over backwards and given us resources and resources to fuel our imaginations, our creativity, and all of our physical needs. At some point, she will need to evaluate when this relationship is becoming too one-sided.
We have an incredible opportunity. We can learn how to give back to her. We can do our half of this relationship better. She is the ultimate heartbeat that resonates love. If we learn to vibrate in harmony with our mother, if we learn to be extentions of her love in the world, if we learn to listen, to feel our connection with this amazing energy—she knows the recipe for harmony and balance in the world and she is willing to share.
During this turbulent time in our culture and in our world, please take some time to get quiet and say hello to the Earth. Say hello to the divinity that exists within all things. Through whatever path resonates with you—prayer, meditation, walking, skipping, laughing—please know that your thoughts and your vibration of love in the world makes a difference.
Comments (0)
10.24.2008 | 12:10 pm | Exquisite Corpse of the Month
It is with great sorrow that we announce that July, August and September’s corpses have not been recovered. All that remains of these months is this one sad chalk outline.
Comments (0)
10.24.2008 | 12:06 pm | Exquisite Corpse of the Month
After many months, lost in the folds of a calendar–June has emerged in radiant and coffee-stained glory.
Comments (0)
08.28.2008 | 4:43 pm | Travel Log
…Ever experienced a Banya? I hadn’t until I went to the Altai. The Banya is a traditional Russian bath house, and has officially spoiled me for most other forms of getting clean, including my beloved bathtub. OK, not that my bathtub sucks, but someday, I will build a Banya of my own and grow tomatoes in the bathtub.
The front room of the Banya is where you undress, get organized, and take care of the fire that heats the big tank of water in the inner room. One of the greatest things about the Banya is that you generally wind up with a couple of other people (of your own gender. traditionally) so there is plenty of downloading, laughing, gossip, moaning and groaning, etc. during the bath experience. An absolutely peak Altai experience was one night when the women in my group were desperate for a Banya and the fire had gone out in the front room, the water was cooling down and we were on the verge of collective tears. Enter (we were dressed!) about six kids from the youth summer camp, who decided that they would get the fire lit for us. They had no English, We had no Russian, there was no kindling or paper, but someone had a pocket knife, and with the addition of about four more kids and lots of smoke and boasting and hilarity there was enough of a fire to get on with. Just when we were wondering how to tell our Saviors politely that they could leave, the camp counsellor found us and was totally appalled at his grubby gang in the Banya with some Western Ladies and the place cleared like magic. The Counsellor’s parting shot for us was to leave the front door open for AT LEAST ten minutes so we wouldn’t choke to death.
So that’s the front room. Once you’re naked and have your supplies, you go into the middle room, where the actual bathing part happens. There are big tanks of cold water and a bench with smaller buckets that you fill with a mix of the cold water and hot water from the tank in the inner room to the temperature of your liking. Swill your self down, trade shampoo with your neighbor, try not to slip on the wood floor as it gets soapier and soapier! The Banya is a wooden building, so the heat and the water combine to create a fragrant, cosy, dank atmosphere.
The inner room is where the hot water tank sits above the fire box accessed from the front room. There are also shelves to sit on like in a sauna, and if you like you can sit in there and sweat and chat and feel the day melt out of your body like butter. You can also gently switch each other with birch branches if there are any around, its good for the circulation. We had birch branches one night and it was INTENSE getting switched, pins needles and every nerve awake and screaming. Felt good.
I loved the banya. The banya loved me. There’s no good way to end this, so I guess it will just stop here. Smelling hot birch leaves.
Comments (1)
« Previous Entries
