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mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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One Step at a Time, Self Image

February 11, 2013 — 5 Comments

Typically people want more of everything. Your ability to estimate is very closely related to your ability to execute.  Risk has many faces. In the quest to be fit and healthy the biggest risk is burn out.  I can say that with assurance because I have observed people in the earnest pursuit of better health for decades.  Over this time the offers to remove symptoms have become overwhelming.  Drugs, frozen prepaid meal plans, personal coaching, and one of the oldest, but still happening trends, the weight loss shake, are everywhere to assist the starving, overweight population.

In an effort to bypass the moment all systems are switched into deprivation mode. Suffering and tofu must follow as punishment for wild times at the Dairy Queen on the weekend.  The disconnect between self image and soul is now almost complete.  Confession and penance are the rituals that surround food and eating now.  Joy, creativity and community are not in the food pyramid for many people because diet is presented as obsession, and  denial of pleasure.  The ancestors had to grow, gather, kill, render, store, dry, milk, and otherwise do something very basic in order to eat.  They did not concern themselves with the calories contained in the food as much as they did with starvation.  They were all constantly involved with the original exercise known as work.  They did not drive to a gym or change outfits to do it.  They picked up the tools of their various trades and worked physically.  If they had a treadmill it was to run something, not to be run by it.

Valentine for Kali Maa

February 7, 2013 — 3 Comments

The Hindu goddess Kali has protection on her mind at all times. She is one heavily armed vigilant  benevolent mother. She has a red tongue to represent our carnal desires, and she prefers red flowers as an offering. Remember Kali at Valentine’s Day because she is the ultimate power ranger of tough love.  She can and will make or break you. Understanding the Hindu pantheon will not conflict with your religion, and may bring to light your own relationship with the wrathful mother.  You do not have to call her Kali to know who she is.

Kali is the destroyer.  Her name is based on the word time.  Nothing escapes time.  Her job is to shatter illusion. She shows up all blue and naked with weapons and multiple severed heads and arms. She herself has four arms to administer justice.  She is intent on the destruction of evil, and like all mothers, teaches her children about evil in doses they can handle. Her protection is essential for the continuation of the universe, but she gets a bad rap.  Destruction is only the other side of creation.  The birth and death cycle is inevitable.  To grasp the power and the glory of Kali you need to see that time is at least as powerful as space.  Mother Earth is the ultimate judge.  This too shall pass. This year dedicate some red flowers to the eternal protective mother.

Mark Bittman on Food in America

February 5, 2013

Mark Bittman is a foodist supreme and an omnivore. He and Anthony Bordain are my food persona idols. Although they both do eat all manner of animal products, they do it in awareness. In this TED talk Bittman details the history of eating and agriculture in America that has brought us to this point. I am about his age so I relate totally to the diet he describes on his childhood table. Like him, I was inspired my mother’s God awful cooking to learn to cook early in life. Unlike him, I became a vegetarian at the age of 19. In 1970 in North Carolina I can assure you that vegetarianism was completely foreign as a concept. My diet was not yet healthy, but it was mostly homemade. I was a baker of biscuits and bread.  I was lucky that my roommate had  mother who sent us really tasty canned produce from her garden in South Carolina.   Over time I met vegetarians for health (from northern California, of course) and improved the ingredients I used. I garden and enjoy cooking and eating produce now, but my learning curve has taken place in a time when all agriculture has become progressively less healthy. I hope you will have time to listen to Bittman’s excellent talk, but if you need a summary here it is:

  1. Animals are responsible for 20% of the air pollution and much of the lifestyle disease in America
  2. Eating plants is known to be healthier than eating animals
  3. Agribusiness and the USDA are not our friends
  4. It is simple to change one’s own diet and thereby make the most important contribution

People of the First Light

February 2, 2013 — 1 Comment

The Wampanoag tribe is known as the People of the First Light because they lived, hunted, fished and made wampum along the outer banks of New England before the Pilgrims landed. The dawn as viewed on this side of the Atlantic assures one that Europe is distant. New dawn in a new world is powerful natural medicine. As goes the story all across the nation, that medicine proved to be easily hackable by flim flam Euros. The First Light, and all the real estate with a fine view of same was desired by colonial imperialists as soon as they found it. Bare naked greed was employed to occupy the territory, form a government, and launch right into a big fat slave trade with big fat profits. Early in the disagreements King Philip, a native with a following, attempted to oust the invaders. This was used by the colonists as an excuse to starve and otherwise decimate the surviving native inhabitants in order to occupy all their real estate.

These same religious zealots who gave us the Salem witch trials used  the Harvard Indian College as a political ploy to gain financial support in England for conversion of whatever was left of the heathen native people.  This institution in Cambridge, like the Indian boarding schools in the western US, was designed to strip the natives of language and culture in order to make them good Christian citizens.  Why colonize a place if you can’t decimate the population and make good fearful Christians of  the survivors?

Gradual Decline

January 29, 2013 — 1 Comment

The people who have gone through natural disasters and survived can tell us change is never what we expect. The people who languish in unhappy circumstances often believe that fate has trapped them without options.  The appearance of permanence is a mind boggler. The sensory world seems permanent and meaningless, virtually everything it is not. You are an element of change, weather you acknowledge it or not. Some folks imagine they are preserving the world, others think they are destroying, ruling, or upgrading it. If sudden events alter the world around you, you will both adopt new ways of coping and adapt new skills. This is true for gradual change as well.

The median income in the U.S. of all but the top 10% of earners has remained relatively flat since 1967. Not all family groups, but most, own less than they owned three years ago. A small increase in household income is enjoyed by the top 5 percent of earners, but the middle class has lost income since the big crash of 2008. The adaptation to this reality does not look like healthy acceptance and appropriate response. The concept that the future is always better casts a dark economic cloud over real budgets. Spending as if there is no tomorrow usually results in a future of gloom. Paying the piper is inevitable in terms of karmic as well as financial debt. At both a personal and a national level new skills and perspectives are needed to break the cycle of gradual decline.

Mintha, Green Goddess

January 18, 2013 — 2 Comments

Persephone stomps on Mintha

Persephone stomps on Mintha

Mintha, Greek goddess of the mint plant is a fertile herbal mother.  Stewing, growing, and drinking mint can cause euphoric uplift.  Soothing, aiding digestion of food and intuition, mint tea opens the senses and the mind.  Bathing or washing with mint stimulates the skin and the circulation.  The high notes of these aromas evaporate quickly.  The use of mint in aromatherapy is widespread and well accepted.  Peppermint oil is used for everything from headache cure to memory tonic. In the middle east, especially Morocco, mint tea is the beverage of choice for all occasions.

Growing mint is easy.  I grow several varieties, with the most dominant ones winning out and taking over the space.  A source of moisture is all they need to spread like crazy underground.  To harvest it, cut it and hang your bundles in a dry dark place until dry.  I store mine in brown paper bags once dry because I have too much to use jars. I harvest mass amounts throughout the year.   In the summer we drink it every day for the cooling qualities.  Mints mix very well with other herbs and fruits to create flavor layers in tea.

Mintha, the water nymph of myth, had an affair with Haides, god of the underworld, pissing off Persephone, his wife.  In an all too common scenario in Greek mythology, angry wife takes revenge on the nymph, in this case by by stomping on her.  She turns into the mint plant so that every time Persephone steps on her the aroma of mint wafts all over the angry queen.  So whether  you want to uplift your spirits or annoy an angry queen, the goddess Mintha is the tool for the job.

Groupies of the Chef

January 9, 2013 — 2 Comments

We have a new favorite restaurant in Tucson. It was recommended to us by a friend, so my neighbor Heidi and I went on reconnaissance. We enjoyed a lovely lunch with gourmet touches and warm service the week before Christmas. I decided to take advantage of a special offer on gift certificates, and purchased three for 2013. I received a 30% discount which always makes me feel smart and happy. Lodge on the Desert is creating a seasonal artisanal menu that suits me perfectly.  I am a dedicated groupie of Ryan Clark who tickles my tastebuds exactly the way I like.  Dining out is a rare special occasion, so I need to make it count.
Christmas brunch was pure delight. Now I can return for two more blow out gourmet dining experiences when the season changes. The chef is brilliant, the cuisine local and contemporary.  This is my idea of ideal dining, right in the ‘hood. Chef Ryan Clark is a local treasure.  I am looking forward to tasting our next meal in his restaurant.

Water, the Emotional Element

January 2, 2013

Water is the element that is designed to soothe emotional ailments. Hot springs have been regarded as healing and medicine power centers by many different cultures. The belief that sacred rivers and springs can act as oracles, healers, and powerful symbolic medicine is widespread.  Ponce de Leon and his crew were seeking that ultimate liquid cure in Florida when they discovered Miami Beach. Water, and the flow of water, is the essence of life.

When water on earth is redirected by man sometimes disaster follows.  Levees break and floods devastate.  The body can only tolerate so much redirection or misuse of the water element before debilitating consequences occur.  We were not created to drink only beer and diet soda, just as  the Colorado River was not created to irrigate all of the southwestern US.  The result is about the same in the body as in the CAP aqueduct that evaporates the Colorado River water in an open trough while it travels all the way across Arizona to Tucson.  Once the kidneys have been compromised in the human body, and the adrenals shot to hell by stress, years of chronic dehydration cannot be reversed. Confusion rules.

Water also has the effect of reversing gravity, which may be the strongest reason it is emotional medicine. Floating is highly underrated.  When the world has you down, notice it is just gravity, and the remedy is at hand…….cool clear water.  Drink some, immerse yourself in some, even if only in a bath.  Hydrate your emotional life and your dreams with pure clean water. Santé!

Double Down to Feed Our Neighbors

December 27, 2012

In Tucson we host a lot of transients, create crime/residual poverty, and our economy has depended on boom and bust construction. The present condition of our social safety net to protect our weakest is critical. Our Community Food Bank is now $400,000 underfunded for the year. The shelves are bare and the need increases daily. Last night on PBS Newshour I listed to philanthropy experts discuss the fiscal cliff fiasco and non profit businesses. Small donors are fewer this year because of both uncertainty and lack of extra funds for giving. The uncertainty is exacerbated by the fact that non profits also receive 30% of all funding from government programs. They know that falling off the cliff will eliminate many non profit agencies by simply removing the government support. I take a very dim view of congress in the steam room while non profits fold.

A glimmer of hope in Tucson: “Hi e’rybody, I’m Jim Click.” A well known cowboy car dealer hero has stepped up with Sandy Peebles to double all the contributions made to the Community Food Bank from now until the end of the year. I usually take mine to a local lawyer’s office for doubling, but she was not offering the matching funds this year, so I am late. I am thrilled to see our wealthy business owners ride up on the white horses in the white hats to do the right thing. I always ask friends and neighbors to support the Food Bank of Southern AZ because they get the most bang for the buck. When you give a dollar to the Food Bank they use their leverage to buy $9 worth of food for those in need in Tucson. Some non profits have heavy staff and administrative costs, but the Food Bank is lean and clean. They recently won a grant to put gardens in the schools. Please follow me to the website and donate now while the need is great and your donation will be doubled. Let’s all help Jim dig a little deeper into his car bucks.

I also ask everyone to help me end fraudulent philanthropy. Criminals take advantage of the public by seeking donations for bogus entities. Please have some scrutiny and some consideration when you donate. The experts on PBS taught me that small donors usually do not write off their gifting on Federal income tax. That was surprising to me. Wealthy people strategically use giving to pay less in taxes. If you do not have an extra million to give, please make sure your donation is going to a legitimate non profit with an ethical goal. The gifts are needed by the legitimate non profits more than ever, and it is important to know what happens to your hard earned donation.

Quadequina Wampanoag, 11th Great Grandfather

December 26, 2012 — 79 Comments

Natives of New England

Natives of New England

It is with great excitement that I have found an ancestor from my mother’s side in Plymouth Colony.  Most of her forefathers sailed to Virginia or below, but this particular Taylor branch had some distinctions. Margaret Diguina Weeks is said to be the Wampanoag daughter of Quadequina. There is  dispute about this, but I do hope I can confirm these facts. My 11th great-grandfather, Quadequina, introduced popcorn to the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.

It becomes complicated because there were two Richard Taylors, both married to women named Ruth. I have not traced them back in England to know if they match up in the old country  with the other Taylors.  Ruth Wheldon’s father officially objected to her marriage to my Mr. Taylor, helping us narrow down some of the facts.  If Ruth Wheldon had a full-blooded Wampanoag mother,  Ruth was a kind of Pocahontas of the north.  I need to do some research on this to see what I can learn.  The story is amazing.

Quadequina Wampanoag (1576 – 1623)
is my 11th great-grandfather
Margaret Diguina Weeks (1613 – 1651)
Daughter of Quadequina
Ruth Whelden (1625 – 1673)
Daughter of Margaret Diguina
John TAYLOR (1651 – 1690)
Son of Ruth
Abigail Taylor (1663 – 1730)
Daughter of John
Martha Goodwin (1693 – 1769)
Daughter of Abigail
Grace Raiford (1725 – 1778)
Daughter of Martha
Sarah Hirons (1751 – 1817)
Daughter of Grace
John Nimrod Taylor (1770 – 1816)
Son of Sarah
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
Son of John Nimrod
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
Son of John Samuel
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
Son of William Ellison
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
Daughter of George Harvey
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee

Here is one account of the story of Margaret Diguina and her tribe:

“Gordon B. Hinckley, Shoulder for the Lord” by George M. McCune page 35- ” Two of the early immigrants to Plymouth colony were Gabriel Wheldon, of Arnold, Nottingham, England, and his brother (name unknown). Gabriel had been married in England before sailing to America but his first wife named Margaret evidently was deceased at the time of his migration.

Both brothers had a free spirit much like Stephen Hopkins and found their way to the camps of the Wampanoags. There they both fell in love with two of the daughters of Chief Quadequina, younger brother of the Great Chief. They each married and Gabriel gave his second wife the English name ‘Margaret’ after his first spouse. The two counseled with their father-in-law and his older brother Massasoit regarding what to do. The Plymouth Colony would probably punish them for their intermarriage. Massasoit advised them to return to the colony and all would be well.

The Plymouth Colony tribunals saved face by banishing the couples from Plymouth for life but did not send them back to England. Gabriel and Margaret established their home in Barnstable where the Hinckleys came in late 1630’s and here Gabriel and Margaret raised a large family of girls.

One of those girls was Ruth Wheldon.  This is a score!!