mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Culture in Need of Lovingkindness

September 16, 2013 — 4 Comments

Today we watch another mass shooting unfold in DC like the reality show that it is. The constant reminder of violence must have something to do with the growth and spread of violence. Lovingkindnessis the remedy for our growing epidemic of right and wrong.  If everyone is busy deciding to be right and seek vengeance from those who are wrong who will get in touch with reality?  Have we given up reality to watch it on television and tweet it live?  How riveting will it be to live tweet the IPO of twitter?  While some see gun control or calorie control as the way to solve of cultural problems, I believe we are highly delusional as a society.  The guns and the health issues are symptoms of systems that do not work.  Our distraction is killing us as individuals and as a culture.

Numb and nihilistic as we witness weather and violent torrents of human hatred wash over our land, we twist the truth by looking for the single issue or party on which to place blame.  The events in the world must blur for those who play computer games as well as absorb world tragedy as it unfolds.  The digital distance we have from other other humans and the truth is dragging us in a downward spiral of delusion.  I wonder if people can wake up and think they are in the World of Warcraft…or some variation on it.  We are cultivating violence and maya, when our only hope is in truth and lovingkindness.  Each of us generates energy that fuels the hatred; none of us is perfect.  On an individual basis we must take responsibility to feed and care for the soul of the world until al beings are free.  This will require centering.  This will require a shift in focus and a pivot in the direction of our thinking.

I Endorse Julia Keller

September 14, 2013 — 3 Comments

Julia Keller is a skilled and talented bodyworker with a specialty not often found. She is a licensed aesthetician and massage therapist, but her passion is Ayurvedic medicine.  I enjoyed a beautiful 90 minutes of bliss on her table yesterday during my shirodara treatment.  Her office space is quiet, spacious, and inviting. The feeling in the body after the treatment is spacious and free.  I left the sesame oil in my long hair until bed time, which was a very healthy drink for my hair and scalp.  A day after I enjoyed the lovely feelings of being on the table I still notice a mental peace and a revived sense of energy in my thoughts and body.  The only part of shirodara that is difficult is the end. Eventually all the oil runs out of the vessel, just when the only thing you want for the rest of your life is to have the stream flow on your forehead.  It is like the end of a fireworks show; it has to end.  Lucky for me, Julia practices near my home in Tucson.   This treatment is very beneficial after a cleanse or a trauma, jet lag, or a shock.  It has a very balancing and stress reducing effect.  You can find Julia’s business, A Glowing You, near River Road and First Avenue in Tucson.

The Three Book Diet

September 13, 2013 — 7 Comments

library girl

library girl

I went along with a fad diet started by one of my social media teachers, Chris Brogan. Last November he proposed that  limiting the number of books one read would change the way one learns and absorbs the art and information in the books.  As a proud and profuse library addict I looked at my own reading habits and wondered if I might benefit from reading less and studying more.  The Three Book Diet commenced with a bang and ended with a whimper very shortly after it was begun.  I, however, had chosen three very deep books that deserve a lifetime of reflection and contemplation, as well as physical homework, so I stayed in.

The Sacred Contracts book is the text used in an on line course I have enrolled in to do deeper study in archetypal psychiatry.  I have an extensive and comprehensive set of video lectures and appropriate homework assignments in the course.  The student is required to look very deeply into the past and identify archetypal patterns and write about them in detail.  The self analysis is heavy, and the written work required to make progress is lengthy and serious.  I have started the work, but see that it could require a lifetime.

The Leonardo book has been on my shelf for years, as has the workbook with active homework assignments to help the reader become more like Leo.  It ranks as one of my favorites, so I knew I could stay busy in these books easily for a year without scratching the surface.  I was right about that; 10 months into this diet and I do not seem to be the least bit more brilliant or innovative.  It is for the same reason it always is….because I do not do my homework to rebel.  At least the Sacred Contract study has taught me that this rebel is a teacher and my teacher is a rebel, so maybe I will soon break out of my will to avoid my own assigned homework.  That would be such a fabulous breakthrough!!

Impact Equation is a great book that I read once and looked at a couple of times during the diet.  Chris is the new kind of guru.  Perhaps I think this because he is my guru of social media and disruptive positive change.  I subscribe to his newsletter and correspond with him all the time, so his voice and his attitude are very well known to me.  I am actually happy he gave up the diet; I told him he was too young for it.  Now he has launched a new magazine/biz school, Owner, which is very exciting, so obviously this was not his year to diet.  I have learned from Sacred Contracts that Chris is my teacher and visionary.  He doesn’t need a contract with me, but I am signed up to learn and emulate.  It will end when I have done my homework.  This brings me to the brilliance of the diet for me.  I needed to blog and develop my own skills, but while consuming hundreds of books a year I had no time dedicated to my own writing.  Now I have a small but growing group of Gentle Readers that I love very much.  I would never have found them, or my discipline to write, had I not gone on the book diet.

When I break the fast I will decide what is prudent. I have a pile of books I bought and had signed by my favorite author of all time, Thomas Moore.  I have preordered his new book, which will be released into my Kindle in January.  I will read A Religion of One’s Own with great gusto.  Chris Brogan is my guru of worldly wisdom, but Thomas Moore is my idol.  He is teaching the world to be monastic….in a good way…in a meditative way….in a kind way. Contemplative reading is one way to meditate.  The book diet has taught me the great value of learning more by consuming less. I may go on a One Book Diet next year..it could be fabulous.

Science in the Basement

September 12, 2013

I spent a lot of time in the basement of this house in Oakmont, PA as a child.  It contained a player piano, a bar, a collection of dress up clothing, a record player with records, bottles of pigment, some prisms, a Teslacoil, and some fluorescent lights.  In the garage my dad kept bottles of crude oil he admired and chemicals he brought home from the lab to to experiments with me.   I had to practice on the piano daily and I often played with my friends in the playroom downstairs and out in the back yard.  We loved to play with the prisms, which my mom had made during WWII at an optics plant where she had worked.  We also enjoyed grabbing the electric end of the Teslacoil and lighting up the over head lights with our other hand.  How my parents decided that kids could play with the Teslacoil is a mystery, but they did not mind.

Before I left Oakmont I had a conversation with the doctor who presently lives in the house, Merrill D Bowan, O D who specializes in neurological optometry.  He told me about his studies with brain injury patients using prisms.  He has remarkable results helping people correct problems with proprioception and balance.  His work all made perfect sense to me, although I had just met him in the driveway and asked if he minded if I took a picture in the backyard of the basketball backboard my grandfather put up over 50 years ago.  When I looked around and stirred the memories I knew this was always a unique house in this neighborhood.  Our house was special and different because my father was a mad scientist who enjoyed teaching me to make hydrogen bombs for recreation.  The science energy is still there, alive in the brilliant and progressive mind of Dr. Bowan.  It is somehow very natural.  I am glad I had the chance to meet and talk to him.

What’s on Our Menu?

September 12, 2013 — 2 Comments

squash blossom

squash blossom

Although this well produced story is actually an ad for Chipotle Mexican Grill I believe it is worth sharing with everyone who buys and eats food. I believe cruelty and waste are built into the American economy and fed to all of us; this is not inevitable or even reasonable.  Cruelty and waste are the root cause of our environmental problems, including the human obesity epidemic.  While I would love to see more whole foods produced and eaten locally, just stepping away from heavily processed and transported foods is the first baby step to liberate the energy we spend freezing, storing and shipping our nutrients.  American kids are not familiar with the sources of food, other than the drive up window. The entire society pays for the ignorance in the form of what is known as health care.  It is time to put self-care and prehabilitaion on the menu in the United States.  It is easy, clean, and leads to tastier dining. Stop feeding the industrialized food monster and start nourishing your home and family. Eat something raw and local today, Gentle Reader.  Sorry it is so hard for most of you Americans to find.

September 11, Groundhog Day

September 11, 2013 — 4 Comments

In the United States we have post and future traumatic stress over the date September 11.  We have built memorials, and have sacrificed lives around the world in reaction to September 11, 2001.   Each year the date returns to mark our progress or our immersion in maya.  The Yom Kippur War between Syria, Egypt and Israel is celebrating a 40th anniversary this year.  This date represents heavy issues and memories to all players in that region.  If we continue on the current path we should expect the future September 11th’s and Yom Kippurs to have a very creepy ring of dejá vu.  This week in the Jewish calendar is set aside for paying debts and clearing the slate with confession and repentance.  Each year there is a chance to forgive and be forgiven in a formal and conscious way in order to start the new year at peace. Each year we have used the dates to strengthen our resolve to take matters into our own hands and fix the universe.  This is not our job.  Our job is to be still and know that the same scene is being replayed in our lives for a liberating and educational reason.  Our job is to shut up and get it.

Colors of Autumn

September 10, 2013 — 2 Comments

A visit to the north at the change of seasons can be very beautiful.  I went to New England when the leaves and flowers were bursting out on the trees in May.  Now I said goodbye to the deciduous trees as they begin to change and fall.  I do appreciate the colors and the architectural style of Oakmont, PA, where I grew up and went to school until the end of 8th grade.  While I am not ready to be there in winter, seeing the pretty yards and houses bursting with color is a treat.

Glass Kaleidoscope, Oakmont, PA

September 10, 2013 — 4 Comments

I was surprised to find my old school friend, Marcia Irwin,  in her glass studio in Oakmont, PA, the Glass Kaleidoscope.  She has become a skilled master of stained glass art.  I bought out the earrings an found a nice gift for our hostess of the weekend reunion party.  I did not know who the glass artist was when I decided to check out the shop.  It was really fun to see her as well as her art.  She does custom work and has all kinds of beautiful pieces on hand at her shop for gifting or treating yourself..I enjoyed both.

Memory Bank

September 6, 2013 — 4 Comments

Sights, sounds and smells ignite memories.  There are strong connections of which we are unaware that link us to the past.  We are conditioned by both culture and anticipation.  If we remember (or think we recall) a season, an event,  or a place we create expectations.  I went to see my classmates last week in Pennsylvania to both test and fill my memory bank.  When I first arrived in the small town where I grew up I walked directly to my old home to jog my memory.   It did stir up both direct event recollection and a sense of the place.  It has not changed much.  I haven’t either.

You are what your deep, driving desrire is.

As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.  – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Part of the Community

September 2, 2013 — 6 Comments

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius
Packing light is a good idea, but never leave your heart at home. To do justice to any travel experience an open mind and flexible attitude are both needed. You bring your culture with you, know it or not, and you either decide to break out of it and meet new ones, or not. It is now possible in the United States to stay in chain hotels, and eat in chain restaurants, shop in chain stores, and wear the exact same fashion to the point at all destinations can be reduced to a low and common denominator.

My trip to Pennsylvania was prompted by a reunion with old schoolmates. My curiosity was strong about the town where I grew up and went to school through 8th grade. I wanted to know how my old friends and classmates are now. The weekend was full of parties, visiting, and remembering our younger selves. I like the chance to be in different environments and see plants and architectural styles that are out of my normal range. Destination Oakmont, PA is almost the exact opposite of Tucson, AZ. Being present for leaves changing and the reunion parties has made this an exciting and fulfilling visit.

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How do you choose the places you will visit? Do you always go to places where you know people? AirBnB is a great way to be a guest in a community and be part of it. The agency facilitates on-line rentals of rooms, guest houses, apartments and more in private homes. I have stayed in a spacious clean home with kitchen privileges, coffee machine and private bathroom en suite. My host family is helpful and knowledgeable about the area. I was given some local history books to read upon arrival that were excellent. Staying in a neighborhood also gave me the perfect location. Our class reunion party was only a block from my place. I do like hotels for certain purposes, but the growth and popularity of airbnb shows the increasing interest in a new way of traveling. It offers a chance to take part in the life of the community more than a hotel can. Before your next trip, take a look at the available rental properties in the system. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised. I have been more than happy both times I have rented with the company.