mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Space, Time, Alchemy
January 19, 2013
— 3 Comments
Alchemy Symbols
Alchemy is the act of transformation. Throughout history the alchemists have studied nature and mystery. We participate in alchemy when we focus our spiritual talents on the elements of the earth. Inventors and those who are especially creative tap into alchemy to turn imagination into reality. It has been associated with medicine, but all science is the realm of the alchemist. Carl Jung brought alchemy and archetypes into psychiatry. The collective consciousness communicates through symbols and dreams. The alchemists, like wizards and magicians, use mythical power to transform or create.
Our time and space are literally created and projected by us. We are active participants in our entire experience of reality. My favorite alchemist in history is the Swiss Paracelsus, who practiced medicine and magic at the same time. He was searching for the Christian version of pagan natural magic. He promoted Jacob Boehme’s Doctrine of Signatures, a spiritual belief that plants are designed to communicate their healing properties to man. His work was both controversial and respected during his lifetime. What distinguishes the alchemist from a wizard or magician is a constant experiment. The science of chemistry was developed from the never ending experiments of the alchemists.
If you could focus your spiritual energy on nature to transform your life, what would you transform? If you were to focus do you think you could change the quality of your experience?
Triberr Changes Rules, Uproar Ensues
January 13, 2013
— 16 Comments
I have been enjoying meeting and spreading the work of bloggers on the Triberr platform. I went to NYC in September to learn more about it, and have been pleased with all I have gained from my enjoyment of Triberr. Yesterday the stream of blogs started drying up and today we learn that a limit was imposed of a maximum of 6 posts a week for each member. I am not as prolific as many of my tribe mates. I do not advertise or promote anyone’s products on my blog. My thing is simple. I am just shocked that they are going all Netfix with no warning.
I predict there will be an exodus of some kind, and maybe a knock off site. In the meantime it will be the talk of the town, not in a good way. I do not mind paying a small fee, but there is something about changing the rules overnight that causes uproar. Triberr has some ‘splainin to do.
Design and Deliver Happiness
January 12, 2013
The all around good time, right livelihood, and value vibe created by Zappos is a result of excellent design. The products we buy from Zappos are of high quality. What is perhaps more important is that they are steering capitalism in a healthy direction by upgrading the way business is designed. Feudalism, slavery, share cropping and all other adverse forms of employment feature happiness for shareholders only. This short-sighted vision produces more unhappy servants of the apparently happy owners of companies than it does loyal customers. With the contentment quotient working in reverse, quality, innovation, and value erode and vanish. I think this erosion is occurring in the public service sector. If Vets kill themselves there is a clear indication that something essential is missing in the overall design of our public business.
How can we make the business of government switch from a stagnant vessel of inefficient service to a lean mean contentment machine? Are there ways to practice the Zap happy values in public service and politics?
- Deliver WOW Through Service
- Embrace and Drive Change
- Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
- Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
- Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
- Do More With Less
- Be Passionate and Determined
- Be Humble
I do see a little weirdness, but far too little. The WOW Through Service is just not happening. Imagine the government being passionate to do more with less, or be humble. These core values are created for the benefit of all. Happiness compounds daily, as does negligence. My dream government applies these guiding principles to create a better world. Imagine, gentle reader, a government that makes us as happy as Zappos does, all while being creative and open minded. We can dream.
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.
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- grilled romaine
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- Sangria
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- passionfruit chiltepin cocktail
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- Christmas Cheers!
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- Flatbread made veg for me
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- crispy tortillas for garnish
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- duck confit salad
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- chocolate torte
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- chocolate chili gelato
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- too much dessert
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- charming historical lodge
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- outdoor fireplace
Foxy New Year, Downtown Tucson
January 7, 2013
— 1 Comment
New Year’s Eve
uplight
Fox Theater downtown Tucson
stage
Bob takes a call
before the show
lighting fixture at Fox
I had not been in the Fox Theater since the 1970’s when I used to pay $1 to stay all afternoon and watch Woody Allen movies in air conditioned comfort. Downtown Tucson has had a bit of a slow start and restart to our urban renewal concept known as Rio Nuevo. I seriously thought about moving downtown, but did not think it would ever come around to a desirable state. There are still issues, but I am very pleased with what is happening now. We went to a Paula Poundstone show on New Year’s Eve at the historic theater. It was a great comedy concert, but we really enjoyed the design and the atmosphere of the building. We were able to find a cab to take us home, which has been a problem on outings to downtown in the past. Eventually we will have a tram to take us to the restaurants and entertainment venues that are starting to appear. I have high hopes that ten years from now I will be able to hop on the bus in front of my home, connect to the tram to go enjoy the vibrant downtown Tucson deserves. I certainly hope so.
Depth of Conversation Diet
January 6, 2013
— 1 Comment
the bird
Charlie Rose talked last week on his show with the creators of twitter about how long and how deep our conversations are today. The adaptation to 140 characters is natural in our world now and creates possibilities. The flying about of links creates interest in larger deeper meaning. I agree with them that all the various forms of engagement offer a different way to approach exchange. My personal favorite link right now is Alan Simpson dancing Gangam style with the can that is being kicked down the road. To tweet that gives me a high degree of pleasure because it has great social and political import.
Since I have limited myself to reading only three books this year on the Three Book Diet I have noticed that I read constantly, book or no book. The way we read and write has not surpassed the book, but if you give up books now, you notice that reading inundates everything, and Google is the best little librarian anyone ever imagined. The data is with us. In this process I have turned my attention to homework long overdue to my own self. Writing, drawing, and active creativity needs to balance all the reading. I used to say you don’t get a healthy body to get a healthy body to get a healthy body…You get a healthy body to enjoy life or the whole thing is stupid. Literacy is the same ,I now learn. You don’t read to read to read to read ( except in elementary school). You read to acquire knowledge and skill to be productive in some way, or reading the entire library is for naught. What began as an experiment has been very instructive to me in terms of balancing my creating/sucking practice in the written word. I do love books and research. Had I not stopped to take note of the imbalance I would be sucking down a book right this minute, rather than writing this to you, gentle reader.
Charlie and the guys eventually discussed the depth of meaning diet. The conversation diet is similar to the book diet. It asks you to balance snacks (woot!) with more substantial meals (blogging), and an awareness of same. A healthy diet today consists of media production as well as consumption. The interactive phase has just begun. Tweet seats at live events tell us something about where the twitter bird is heading. The nature of all the new connecting technology is that it is more crowded every second. The individual conversation, taking place everywhere all the time is well represented by the little blue bird in flight. We need to have deep conversations about the state of affairs today. Let the bird fly for peace. May the twitter bird be free. May the twitter bird be happy. May we use it for the highest good and deepest connection.
Mini Time Machine in Tucson
January 2, 2013
— 1 Comment
Mini Time Machine
enjoying exhibit
Santa on the roof
bedroom doll house
Antique music box
Santa rides
Santa naps at home
courtyard
relief minis
enchanted land
My neighborhood in Tucson contains one of my favorite museums of all time. I have been to a specialty miniature museum in Basel Switzerland several times that is elaborate. To have a high quality specialty museum with changing exhibits near my home is priceless to me. A visit to the Mini Time Machine is a blast for all ages. The detail and concentration involved in creating these tiny items will blow anyone’s mind. The more you look the more you see. All the exhibits are completely childproof, and the museum provide stools that kids can carry that will lift them up to eye level at the displays. I have been there for a museum fund raising party which was incredibly fun. They do make arrangements for private parties as well.
To Tweet or Not to Tweet,
December 28, 2012
— 3 Comments
Hamlet and skull
that is the question…..wheather it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of 140 character communication, or ignore it. Peeps who do not tweet are not neccesarily out of touch, while tweeps who do may be wildly deranged or just killing time. Considering how much time is killed in real time, we must admit that this double edged sword cuts both ways. Our challenge is to use it for the benefit of mankind. I am sure there were many fatal errors while humans became familiar with the properties of fire, but eventually the power was harnessed for beneficial uses. The printing press, and, Oy Vey!, the printed Bible have drastically changed the course of history. The tool itself must not be maligned, but investigated to find the highest and best use.
We have a tool for democracy called congress which,in itself,is not a bad idea. It was created to govern our republic. There were corporations in early America, but there were no superpacs. Carolyn Myss uses an excellent example in the book Sacred Contracts to explain the use of tools on earth. She used the example of learning to use a knife. If you grab the knife by the blade it will be painful and destructive. When the paid becomes too great you may decide to use the handle of the knife which makes the knife useful for many purposes. Then the knife can cut food and perform a number of other useful tasks. We need to grab congress by the handle now. This is much too painful. This is our time in history, post Zombie Appocolypse global hot house. How shall we handle this?
On the Bus or Off the Bus
December 27, 2012
— 2 Comments
Merry Praksters
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all – suspicion. –Demosthenes
How can we cultivate a healthy sense of disrespect and suspicion that is mindful of and careful with the opinions of others? We see no mature examples set by politicians. Religious leaders all teach healthy disrespect for worldly authority. Some religions teach that all worldly authority is to be shunned because of the wicked nature of it. The nuns on the bus dissing the Pope showed healthy suspicion of politicians trashing the poor to be elected by the rich. There was a saying that resonated back in the hippie world. “You are either on the bus or off the bus.” The phrase came from the book The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test by Tom Wolfe. We also talked constantly about revolution, and the end of the empire. Bob Dylan, The Dead, Angela Davis, Black Panthers, SDS….. it was all very meaningful….and then it faded like morning dew in a folk song. Perhaps these nuns were hippies who never lost the baby faith.
Much Ado About Satan
December 21, 2012
I believe that the South Park gay Satan may be the strongest projection of our collective image of evil outside of ourselves. While Rocky’s Fearless Leader worked for the cold war, gay Satan breaking up with Saddam Hussein is the right farce for now (ridiculous). Of course the U S Marines were grateful to have the footage to force gay Saddam to watch his South Park episodes. (Semper Fi). If somehow you were captured by Marines in your dreams, which episode of South Park would they force you to watch?
I admire the ability to use irony as torture. John McCain has data that proves torture by old fashioned methods did not yield useful information. John McCain is my own state’s expert on torture, as he ably demonstrated with his own ironic choice of running mates. Our intelligence community, as they are known, often think outside the intelligence. If you meet them please have some courtesy, have some sympathy, have some taste.
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