mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Extended Spring

May 11, 2013 — 1 Comment

I had the super fine opportunity to extend the season of spring this year in the most pleasant way.  By visiting New England I had the chance to study my ancestors in the places they lived and died.  One of the strongest impressions I have of my visit is of the flowering trees.  The botany of the ancestors reminded them of spring and hope in a way that was dramatic every year.  To witness the return of color, warmth and spring fashion unfold before my eyes was a treat that stays in my memory. Hope is the motto of Rhode Island.  I have a dreamy set of images that express hope through blossoms.  I will not forget how happy all the flowers made me feel.  I am comfortable and at home with all the people I met in Rhode Island.  I love the way Jamestown, an island where my ancestors had dairy farming business in the 1600’s, is still a place for dairy and produce farming.  They are completely rural and close to town at the same time. Hope springs eternal.

Magic Word

May 10, 2013

Carl Jung carved a Latin inscription above the door of his house in Kusnacht, Switzerland: “VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT.” This means: “Called or not called, the god will be there.” To actively call and later, be still and know is the heart of meditation. The call can be music, nature, yoga, chant, movement, or poetry.  The goal is emptiness gained through insight. This free time beyond the word, beyond the concept, and beyond imagination is free time with no boundaries of space and time. The ultimate reality is unlike the one in which our ego goes and does and consumes all the time. It has infinite qualities, at which words merely take a stab at defining. Words and chants are used to create liturgy and forms of reverence. Group voice has a magical quality that lifts spirit and satisfies the soul. Words and sounds resonate as well as drive the memory deeper, creating more meaningful images of past and dream life as a collage.

Rarely do direct and useful insights arrive like lightning bolts.  I notice that visual cues stimulate my contemplation, but often a single word has great and continued meaning.  Last week I heard the sound of a name I have often read, Hecate.  I noticed that my mental pronunciation had been incorrect.  Perhaps for this reason the name and her meaning came back to me a few times over the weekend.  As we learned discernment between soul and spirit, her name was mentioned as the night goddess of magic.  Her meaning is all about soul, in the living and the dead.  She stands at the crossroads and is a guide to the underworld. At the end of our group’s time together we got to gaze into Tom’s obsidian mirror to stimulate our intuitions.  The small shiny mirror was passed around from student to student as we said our goodbyes to each other.  I moved about with my reflective image,  finally settling on a shot of the ceiling , which was covered with acoustic tile.   I gazed for a few moments and again Hecate came faintly into my mental focus.  Days later I remembered the image of that cross of the intersecting ceiling tiles.  This time the metaphor of my question as a crossroads, and Hecate is the ruler of the place was clearer.

All decisions are not life or death.  I take from this contemplation on my own soul and spirit the idea that life is finite, but the soul is not.  Hecate is a symbol of darkness, death, and magic.  Called or uncalled, she will be there at the crossroads.

Be Passionate and Determined

May 8, 2013 — 5 Comments

Ninth on the Zappos list of core values is a description of attitude. To be passionate and determined to please customers buying products is one thing, but this means passion to deliver happiness to all concerned.  I just read that the average American employee spends 24% of the time they are paid at work cruising the internet for personal reasons.  The sapping of energy and time that this represents also creates, I think, a big deficit in the happiness quotient. Both individual workers cheating the company out of work, and the ultimate customer experience for the client is cheapened when the employees are feeling cheated themselves.  Sticking to core values that uplift, support and reward the staff has to result in higher fun factors all around.

When I invented Floatli training systems I thought I wanted to teach people how to use them.  I have changed my mind.  Now I want to provide this naturally entertaining and useful aquatic equipment to everyone and let them do whatever they care to do.  I have abandoned the idea of teaching teachers, party because it would mean finding passionate and determined instructors to certify.  I want to present it like a hula hoop or a water gun, something any and everyone can use in the way they like.  The arm floatation units provide security for those as yet uncomfortable in deep water, and the full arm and leg combination is a challenging workout if used as such.  I am passionate and determined to convince Zappos to adopt Floatli as the official company sport.  That is how I picture everyone having the maximum amount of fun. Zappos markets better than anyone, and the product itself provides happiness to those who buy it.  I am determined to get an audition to demonstrate why Floatli and Zappos are an excellent match.  It soon will be hot and nothing will feel better than a romp in cool water.

Bourdain Defines Boorish

May 6, 2013 — 6 Comments

Last week I was very excited to have tickets to attend a stage show in Providence called Good and Evil. This two man show stars Anthony Bourdain and another chef, Eric Rippert. Although I had no idea what to expect I thought it would be funny and entertaining. I even convinced a friend to go with me based on my expectations.  The theater itself was completely amazing, and the music played before the show created a great warm up.  I was super pleased to be there in the Providence Performing Arts Center ready to be entertained.

What ensued was anything but entertaining.  These tragic egos insulted each other in turn, and then turned the vitriol on all other celebrity chefs.  It was name dropping in the most useless way, only to insult and criticize.  Bourdain went off insulting vegetarians saying that if you travel to a foreign place being vegetarian is offensive to all natives who do eat meat.  Sorry, Tony, I was living in Venezuela in 1963, flying into Amazonian fishing camps where there were no people except remote native dwellers when you were in diapers.  As an adult I have gone to third world places that you would never attempt without a TV crew and big budget.  Speaking the language or attempting to communicate and be part of the scene is the important link.  I have always been treated really well in the third world, and have never sensed any resentment from locals when I eat no meat.  The Cubans were particularly happy not to have to procure meat for the outrageous dinner they made for me. The view you have created for yourself is false, creepy, and shows your imperialistic roots. Boorish is not endearing to anyone.

Tony, Tony, Tony, your tone is inappropriate, but the subject matter is tasteless.  Without the trappings of the CNN crew and budget your personality is bitter and very tiny.  I may be able to watch you travel and eat now, but I will never be able to respect you.  Name drop and insult people in private.  We, the public ( and former fans) do not need to know just how tragically toxic your liver actually is.  Spew that toxic bile all over somebody in private if you must.  It does not belong in a classy theater.

Living Soul

May 6, 2013

book signing

book signing

Kripalu is a yoga school and retreat center in western MA that is leading the way in yoga instruction in the US. With a long background, checkered, then revised, they had the head start on yoga when it hit the competitive mainstream of American fitness.  I have several friends who are certified by Kripalu in yoga, and they are all very well versed in the whole system and philosophy.  I enjoy yoga practice, but have been out of the habit of taking classes for years.  I like my yoga room at home for the freedom and variety that I practice.

My reason for spending a weekend at Kripalu was to be in a workshop taught by an author I really admire.  Thomas Moore instructed a group of about 40 students the difference between soul and spirit.  This seems like a small technical issue, but it is much more basic.  We had about 8 hours of class with him, and a special evening was offered to all Kripalu guests with his wife and daughter.  The Kundalini yoga session with live band chanting was a perfect counterbalance for the intellectual work we were doing.  They are quite a stunning family, described by Thomas as a kind of monastic group.  Each is a monk in a certain personal way.  The ladies are Sikhs with turbans and sheepskin mats, the distinctive look of the Yogi Bhajan followers. They teach Kundalini yoga.  Tom is an expert in the world of religion who has his own way of practicing reverence.  They radiate the power of individualization.  If nothing else (and there is plenty) they teach the value of following the individual call to a specific path without regard for anything else.

The alchemy of thought, dreams, poetry, and the ritual of Kundalini yoga were all thrown into the still and worked.  The distilled result is wisdom, the kind that sinks in and becomes useful over a long period of time. The time and space expanded to allow a remarkable level of teaching to take place.  An artful, and soulful lesson was delivered as if they were translating directly the language of  the sky.  We now have a lifetime to absorb our new insights.  Although in the last few years I have walked out of a couple of workshops I paid for and attended because I felt the teaching was unethical and possibly harmful, this one made up for all of that.  I notice that the presence matters more than the material to me.

John Brown

April 24, 2013 — 2 Comments

New Hampshire

New Hampshire

My 10th great grandfather was baker in London who came to America with his very young future wife in 1635.  He became wealthy in New Hampshire.

” John Browne 40″ as well as “William Walker, 15; James Walker 15 and Sarra Walker 17, servants to John Browne, baker, and William Brasey, linen draper in Cheapside” embarked upon the Eliz abeth, Mr. William Stagg, master, leaving London on 17 April 1635 and arriving in Boston, Suffolk County, MA in June, according to Peter Wilson Coldham’s  The Complete Book Of Emigrants . 

In London, Middlesex, England, John was a Baker and was listed as such on the manifest of The Elizabeth.  His master, John Browne, was a Puritan who followed his preacher, Reverend  Stephen Bachiler, to New England to escape the oppression of King Charles.  He became a freeman two years after arriving in 1635, then moved to Hampton, New Hampshire.

First called the Plantation of Winnacunnet, Hampton was one of four original  New Hampshire  townships chartered by the General Court of  Massachusetts , which then held authority over the colony. “ Winnacunnet” is an  Algonquian  Abenaki  word meaning “pleasant pines”. The town was settled in 1638 by a group of parishioners led by Bachiler , who had formerly preached at the settlement’s  namesake :  Hampton,  England .

He received a grant of 4 acres for a house lot on Brown’s River. He eventually became the third wealthiest man and the largest landowner in Hampton, owning four farms. John served as Selectman in 1651 and 1656 

John sued Thomas Swetman for a debt due “for two fat oxen” in 1654. He also brought suit against the “prudential men” and the Town of Hampton for not building a road to his farm, which was near the Falls River toward the part of Salisbury, Essex County, MA that became Seabrook, Rockingham County, NH. The court decided in his favor and the road he wanted was built.

Once in New Hampshire, John built the first bark, a small ship, in Hampton, Rockingham County, NH at the river near Perkins Mill. This ship was mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Wreck of River Mouth.”

John Browne (1589 – 1687)
is my 10th great grandfather
Rebecca Browne (1669 – 1700)
daughter of John Browne
Dorothy Whipple (1669 – 1728)
daughter of Rebecca Browne
Dorothy Rhoades (1705 – 1705)
daughter of Dorothy Whipple
Margaret Hammett (1721 – 1753)
daughter of Dorothy Rhoades
Benjamin Sweet (1722 – 1789)
son of Margaret Hammett
Paul Sweet (1762 – 1836)
son of Benjamin Sweet
Valentine Sweet (1791 – 1858)
son of Paul Sweet
Sarah LaVina Sweet (1840 – 1923)
daughter of Valentine Sweet
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Sarah LaVina Sweet
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Poppies

April 20, 2013 — 3 Comments

Poppies have been cultivated since ancient times.  Poppy seeds are used in magic as well as in cooking. They are associated with rest and remembrance.  It was mythically created by Ceres while she was in search of Persephone, as a symbol of grief.  Death and pleasure are symbolized by red poppies. The bees are very active on them, although red flowers are typically pollinated by hummingbirds.  I think they are being sedated.

Wild West Gunslinging

April 16, 2013

Today (April 16) in 1881 In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. He is fined $8:00.

Guns and power are the entire subject of the cowboy and Indian movie genre. In my youth the entertainment was all about John Wayne and his ilk being in WWII with explosives, guns, and drama, or being in the Wild Wild West with the same scenario. My dad grew up in rural Kansas and Oklahoma, where guns were used for hunting, but he did not hunt because he had poor eyesight.  He developed a love for fishing, which did not require keen sight. I personally learned to shoot a rifle when I was about 4 and my parents left me for a stay in Arkansas at my grandparents’ farm.  I remember being very fond of it and liking it when my grandpa called me Annie Oakley.  I thought target pracice was romantic and cool.

There were no guns in my house, so after my early youth I rarely saw anyone use guns anywhere.  The first night I slept in Caracas when I was 13 I saw a murder from my hotel room on about the 10th floor of the Tamanaco.  I freaked out entirely because there was lots of blood on the white shirt of the victim.  The following day we learned that two hotel guards had shot each other, and that was the whole thing.  Armed guards patrolled the petroleum company compound where I lived in rural Venezuela, which kind of resembled a military base.  I thought nothing of it.  Although I lived in Texas during high school, I still knew nobody who owned or shot guns.

The gun violence debate in the country is alien to my thinking.  I am not comforted by the presence of guns.  I don’t care to own or shoot one.  The citizens who feel so strongly one way or the other about guns are starting to go haywire.  The debate itself is getting scary.

Drinking Color, Tasting Light

April 14, 2013

Taste with your eyes, smell with your feet.

Take in the story with all our might

While there is color, while there is light.

Dreamtime reorders sensuality

In living color.

Honeysuckle for Harmony

April 13, 2013 — 1 Comment

My favorite flower essence is made from the honeysuckle flower.  As children this flower may have been part of our regular enchantment with nature.  Most of us were taught how to pull the stamen down and suck the nectar out of the flower for fun and some insect style nutrition.  I have two large plants that supply fragrance like crazy.  I make and drink fresh essence from the flowers in mass qualities.  It tastes like it smells, and the emotional remedy it supplies is deep release from past experiences.  It is both edible and drinkable.  It has been used for centuries medicinally.  You can’t go wrong with honeysuckle, even if you just sit next to it an breathe.  It is a happiness plant.  The flowers start white and turn yellow as they age.