mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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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.

Canine Massage

April 12, 2013 — 2 Comments


My dog Artemisia had her first canine massage yesterday. I met Beth Jacobson, CVT ( certified veterinary technician and CCMT (certified canine massage therapist) at the U of A hospital wellness clinic. I really enjoyed the work she did on my body, so when I noticed she had this special skill I booked an appointment for my dog. If you live in Tucson you can arrange for a session with Beth for your dog, bjacobson10@cox.net. Artemisia highly recommends her services.

Meesie elected to take her treatment on the big parents’ bed, jumping right up. I left them alone for almost an hour before I checked in and took these pictures. This red bone coon hound was in heaven. She held on to a very snappy happy mood, although she did take an epic nap right after her massage. Her movement seems a little easier today. She is a loyal client, even if she does not get a big spa allowance. I am sure she will have a chance to do this again. It is healthy for her body, and she obviously loves the experience. Compared to a vet visit, which she does not enjoy at all, this is a very reasonable expense.

Flower Poem

April 11, 2013 — 8 Comments

poppy

poppy

bee on orange blossom

bee on orange blossom

white orchid spray

white orchid spray

foxglove snapdragon

foxglove snapdragon

orchids

orchids

fairy duster

fairy duster

Yucca

Yucca

rose Virgin of Guadalupe

rose Virgin of Guadalupe

rosebud

rosebud

penstemon

penstemon

Life blooms before our eyes daily.

The colors saturate the background of our set.

Our bodies also color the landscape, and change it.

We paint our story in a range of colors we have learned from nature.

Flowers speak volumes, directly to our emotions.

John McGalliard and Human Error

April 9, 2013 — 7 Comments

Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms

Although I love this family from Ireland, alas, Roger has helped me see that the last reliable information in this tree belongs to Mary Wright of Somerset, PA, so this is NOT my ancestor.  I am leaving the post for those seeking John and what I have found about him..but I have to kiss him goodbye.

John McGalliard was a teacher who was trained as a minister in Ireland. He settled in New Jersey about 1750, and survived for 17 years in the new world. His son was a tailor who took off for Ohio and became a postmaster.  Ohio was extreme wilderness at the time. These Irish came to America long before the potato famine to seek a new adventure in New Jersey. What inspired them we will never know.

John, Sr. McGalliard (1710 – 1767)

is NOT my 9th great grandfather
son of John, Sr. McGalliard
son of John McGilliard Jr
daughter of John McGilliard III
son of Mary McGill
This is where the mistake was found…starting over from here..such is the nature of research.
daughter of John Wright
daughter of Mary Wright
daughter of Emiline P Nicholls
daughter of Harriet Peterson
daughter of Sarah Helena Byrne
son of Olga Fern Scott
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
John McGalliard and some of his descendants
John McGalliard, educated abroad for the Gospel ministry of the Presbyterian church, came to this country from Ireland and settled at Greenwich, N.J. about 1750. Although trained for the ministry, there is no known record that he served here as either a preacher or pastor. In those old days, however, it was no small part of the minister’s craft to be the teacher of Latin and Greek and other branches of higher learning of the time. Accordingly, we find John McGalliard, early the teacher of a grammer school in Greenwich. This being suggestive of his literary and cultural ability, as well as his spiritual influence and leadership.
From the “Story of the Cumberland County Tea Burners of 1774″, we learn that Joel Fithins, born September 20, 1746, had the advantage of a good education, his preceptor being John McGalliard, who having prepared of the ministry inculcated into his pupils minds the love for English and the literature of the period”.
In 1758, John McGalliard married Hanna Reeves, another native of Ireland, who had come here around 1750. To them were born two sons, John and James and one daughter, Hanna. The children were left orphans before they were ten years old. The father died in 1767 and the mother about two years later.
John McGalliard II
This elder son of John McGalliard was born July 3, 1759. While yet a young man, he set out for the West, going as far as Springfield, Ohio, where he settled and made his permanent home. There he married and became the father of three children. It is easily possible that Miss Virginia McGilliard, one of our Presbyterian Missionaries in Africa, and who hails from Ohio, is a descendant of this family. John McGalliard was by trade a tailor. He also served for many years as Postmaster of his city and community. He died February 26, 1837.
James McGalliard II
James, the second son of the original John McGalliard, was born December 11, 1761. Left an orphan, he was reared by a Mr. Mulford who lived near Roadstown. He took up the then popular avocation of Wheelwright and Cabinet maker. He followed his craft in part at the home and on the farm of Benjamin Keen. After the death of Mr. Keen, this guest craftsman performed the double service of purchasing the farm and later marrying the widow of the said Mr. Keen. The wedding bells were rung on December 5, 1789. They had children, James and Hannah (twins), Eliza, Anna, John and Benjamin Keen. Of only the older son in this family will we be able to write in this brief sketch.
James __ McGalliard
This James was the grandson of John McGalliard whose name and memory we are seeking to honor in this sketch. He married Amy, the daughter of John and Phebe Hires. To them were born eight sons and four daughters, a number of whom died in infancy, or before reaching middle life.
John McGalliard
John, the fourth son of this large family, came into possession of the family home and farm, commonly referred to as the “old home place” at the death of his father, James McGalliard just named. He married Susan Davis. Thier children were Benjamin, Fannie J., Mary and James. Benjamin became a practicing physician in Trenton and was an officer in the First Presbyterian church there. He married Lillian Vannote. They both have died. Thier only child, Elizabeth follows the profession of nursing, and is serving in connection with the Henry Street Settlement House in New York City. Mary married Ephraim Bonham and their children are Chester S. and Susan. Chester married Lottie Simpson of Philadelphia. Their children are Chester, Mary, Charlotte and John. They reside on the old home place.
(note: Elizabeth McGalliard now living at 3333 Madrona Lane, Medford, Oregon
Miss Fannie McGalliard whose vision, painstaking and devotion to the great idea of __ have made possible the consummation of this memorial, resides on Broad Street in Bridgeton. Joseph, the next in this family of James and Amy Hires McGalliard, married Mary Shull. Their children are Lewis, Amy, Esther, Anna and Ella. The next member of the family whose record we are able to enter here was George. He married ___. Their son, George, resides in the Bridgeton area. Thier daughter, Elizabeth, is the wife of Rev. Isaac Compton, a Baptist minister serving a church in Vermont.
The youngest of the family of James McGalliard and Amy Hires McGalliard was Lewis. He married Anna Nichols. Children born to them were Frank, Mary Edna, Bertha and Laura. Laura died in early childhood and Bertha passed away in her upper teens. Frank married Louise Rasohke in 1927. On December 28, 1910, Edna married the minister of the West Presbyterian church, Bridgeton, and now resides at Rahway, N.J. Their son, Maxwell? McGalliard Ewing married Eleanor Shillinger in 1934.
Other McGalliards
The writer here takes the liberty of referring to some other McGalliard, not known to be connected with the family line we have been following in this sketch.
The history of the Old Tennent Church near Freehold, yields some information of value. That record shows that one John McGalliard as early as 1735 was received into the membership of the Old Tennent Church. Please remember that it was John McGalliard who arrived in Greenwich in 1750, just fifteen years later. It could have been the same John, settling first in Monmouth County and later coming to Cumberland, I think, however, that there is evidence to disprove this possibility. Then there is a William McGalliard on record as contributing to the erection of the new church edifice, about 1750, the sum of one pound and ten shillings, and again of Robert McGalliard contribution one pound to the support of the church. There are records of a number of baptisms of infants named McGalliard, and of burials, and near the preserved stones marking the earthly resting places of three members of the family of McGalliard, some of whom are named in this paragraph.
Two other McGalliards, Edward and William, known to the writer, reside in Mercer County in the suburbs of Trenton, both active in the life and work of the Hamilton Square Presbyterian church. Edward, the younger of the two is a ruling elder of that church and is actively identified with the work of the Presbytery of New Brunswick. What connection the Trenton or the Tennont McGalliards have with each other and how either relate to the Greenwich branch, the writer does not know. It is his judgement, however, that by a little research, connection night easily be established.
But a concluding word – – – Those interested in this sketch, could well join in the word of Holy Writ, “Yea, we have a goodly heritage”. A heritage of faith in God, a heritage of loyalty to community and of love of country. John McGalliard came here from Ireland, and there is a tradition that he had previously resided in Scotland. His helpmeet was also reared on the other side. Early influences around him, and the creation in him by the grace of God, turned him toward the Gospel ministry as a life calling. He settled in this country among churchmen. In as brief as possible, let me sense conditions here in those old days. Here at Greenwich were the Padgetts and the Fithians and the Shepards and the Ewings and the Maskells, in the day when John McGalliard and Hannah Reeves arrived. We know something of the intimate, even private lives of at least some of those early folk. Here were Maskell Ewing and Mary Padget, typical young people of the community, they married away back there and became the antecedents of a large and far reaching family line. Before their marriage, in their teens, those young people were “Converted and gave their hearts to God under the powerful Gospel preaching of the celebrated George Whitfield, who frequently visited Greenwich and preached, not in the church, for there was not room there for the throngs that came in that revival time, but in the open air in front of the meeting house. Maskell Ewing became an elder of the church, and served in that capacity for a period of forty years. Of the lives of the said Maskell and Mary, his beloved wife, who were no more than just average people of the community, we have this record that “Their soul’s delight was in the Word of God, and they regarded the divine Savior, as the only foundation of a sinner’s hope”.
I mention this incident of the preaching of Whitefield, which is known to have reached great throngs of people in those early Greenwich days, as evidence of the kind of life John McGalliard and his good wife found when they arrived here from abroad. A man rained abroad for the ministry, settling in a community a thrill with the Christian faith, and naturally becoming the head of the Grammar school, which in those times was practically a living branch of the Christian church, settling indeed where strong Christian faith and desire for the higher, better things, were woven in the warp and woof of the thinking and the living of the people. John McGalliard, with the background he had and settling here in such a midst ?, it takes no more imagination to sense that over into his sons and daughter, and thence on to later progeny, there flowed from his godly life a great sanctifying influence.
Local influences have not a little to do with trends of social and religious connection. Denominational relationships are easily affected by the exigencies of changed location and by the forming of family groups. Even through all of those in their family line we hastily run down, may there not be traced the stream of Christian faith and Christian devotion from generation to generation. John McGalliard came trained for
the Gospel ministry. He practiced his calling in the Greenwich Grammar school. Records of strong faith, deep piety and loyalty to the body of Christ have not been lacking down the years. At Roadstown and Shiloh churches the McGalliard numbers high among church folk, down through history. Dr. Benjamin McGalliard, a lineal descendent, served in the years just prior to his death as a ruling elder in the First church of Trenton. A next generation descendant is a ruling elder in the West Church of Bridgeton, another is the wife and helpmeet of the Rev.. Isaac Compton in Vermont, another is the wife of the Superintendent of National Missions in the Synod of New Jersey.
A good foundation, laid in faith of the kind that stands the tests. Such seems to have been the antecedent strength and background of this family passing today in review. But how about us here to carry on today? What of tomorrow and us? There are the great tests to meet. How should we make good? We can if we will. Hence let us honor the goodly heritage we have. And as there has been set this bit of stone to memorialize our great ancestor, shall we not dedicate anew those lives given us to live her, to be all that God would have them, in the meeting of His holy purposes.
Our ancestors belong to us by affectionate retrospect. Yes, we have a goodly heritage. In the great Book we are enjoined to “remember the days of old and consider the years of many generations”. God make today, with its simple historical memorial event a great day, even a new day to rejoice in those blessings that have come by the channels of the faith of our fathers, and are sealed to us by the Holy Spirit, through the faith of our own hearts!
We come unto our father’s God
Their Rock is our salvation,
The eternal Arms their dear abode
We make our habitation.
We bring Thee, Lord, the praises they bought.
We seek Thee as thy saints have sought,
In every generation.
Blessed be God, for the Glorious Gospel of His grace, vouchsafed to us.
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee, by faith, before the world confessed.
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest!
And grant us Lord like precious faith
With those who went before.
That we may keep our garments white
Until the conflict’s o’er.
Nor faint nor fail nor turn aside
Until the day is done
And we shall see Thee, face to face
And hear Thee say, well done!
Paper read at unveiling of Memorial Tablet at Greenwich, N.J., July 11, 1935, by Joseph Lyons Ewing.

What is a Carry Trade?

April 9, 2013 — 1 Comment

High finance is very easy to understand. The fact that everyone avoids understanding it makes it very easy to take advantage of the financial ignorance of the population. Bernie Maddoff you do not have to be, in order to screw your neighbor and your society out of maximum profit. Buy/borrow/die is all one has to do to benefit from the magic vanishing value of the currency everyone uses. Taxation avoidance, both legal and shady, is the province of those who already have their money in hand. Taxation without even a shabby lobbyist for representation is the fate of those who must claim earned income from jobs.

A carry trade is a calculated risk. The problem is that now the general public does not seem to know how to calculate risk, also known as random acts of unexpected circumstances. We hear the words risk-reward and carry trade, but think this is something that has nothing to do with us and our finances. This banker jargon is for people who wheel and deal, not for borrowers who pay interest on almost everything they buy during their lives. While occupying Wall Street may be symbolic, society would benefit by knowing how Wall Street profits while the population withers financially. If you carry credit card debt while your banker is free to gamble/borrow/invest in carry trades, you will come out as the big looser.

Do you ever wonder why carrying debt at a high interest rate all the time seems natural and unavoidable? Do you simply accept the idea that everything you buy is charged to the future, when presumably it will be so much easier to pay?

The Federal Reserve has become the banker of bankers. Now it is possible to predict with some certainty that interest rates will be kept at nothing for a long time. The certainty itself reduces risk for anyone who wants to gamble with money. Knowing how this will effect your own personal finances may be the single most valuable concept you have learned since you learned to count.

Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

April 8, 2013 — 5 Comments

Zappos core value number six describes the goal of the communication systems.  Any company has to be specific and mindful about communications within the company and with customers.  Zappos takes this seriously.  The open office design and the systems of training and benefits are conducive to better than average communication.  Since the workers are encouraged to express their personalities in decor and office fashion, at least some nonverbal design language is included in the conversation.

If all companies bothered to find out if they really communicate what they think they are saying I believe huge leaps of employee satisfaction could result.  Statistics show that most employees in the US are disengaged.  What the disengagement does is psychically disconnect the employee from the mission of the company.  Doing time in such an environment resembles jail more than it does a place of productive creativity. If the management has no clue about the reality of the workers, all possible loopholes will be used to avoid helping the company.  For the purpose of oversight as well as for the purpose of clear discussion management today needs to interact rather than hand down dictums. Employees who feel at all unhappy with their work life will take it all out on your customer.

The fun starts at the front door at Zappquarters in Henderson, NV.  Ties are cut and placed on the trophy board.  The best communication device I noticed was the way they used your toilet time to make you look at the wellness information.  Trapped in the stall you are educated about the opportunities to improve your overall health in the company wellness program.  This is a fabulous message and delivery method. The Zappsters do not miss any opportunity to deliver that happy message honestly and clearly.

Poetry and Plants

April 7, 2013 — 9 Comments

New this year at the Tucson Botanical Gardens is a collaboration with the U of A Poetry Center, bringing poetry to the gardens.  I attended the class next to the iris garden yesterday and was surprised at the depth and education they packed into the experience.  We learned about the Poetry Center’s history and the very good luck we have to live in a city with a center such as this. We learned about the botanical gardens and the history and meaning of the iris plant.  An enthusiastic docent from the Tucson Botanical Gardens opened the readings with a poem of her own about iris and the field of everyday glory we can find in nature.  We then read together a selection of poems, all in some way referring to the iris.  Our favorite reader was dressed like an iris and has a British accent that enhanced her interpretation.  It was an exceptional experience on all levels for me.  I enjoyed the crowd, and had time after the class to get some technical growing advise from the lady who represented the Iris Society.  Poetry and gardens do go together very well.  Next month the group will meet by the cactus garden….a thorny subject.  I am encouraged to use my poetic voice more often, and listen for stunning stories to tell.

Iris

April 5, 2013 — 1 Comment

Iris means rainbow in Greek, the name of a messenger goddess . The flower has been used in medicine and perfumery for many centuries.  The symbolic fleur-de-lis is a stylized iris used in many coats of arms, and by the New Orleans Saints. In healing the essence of iris is used for seeing. Notice that the iris can only look up.

Turbo the Desert Tortoise

April 4, 2013 — 4 Comments

Turbo the Tortoise has been asleep all winter in his cozy tortoise den.  His very small fellow tortoise, Teenytiny Turbo, slept the winter in a big box on the balcony to protect him from the cold.  He is too little to be on his own.  They started moving around slowly about two weeks ago, and now they are both warm, hungry, and on the move.

They both came from Wildlife Rescue here in Tucson.  Do not pick up a tortoise out of the desert and take it home because it is not legal to do so.  If you want to care for this cute pet, you need to inquire at Wildlife rescue for those who need homes.  They are independent, but do know their people and ours even likes the dog, who is polite to him.  He is very hungry now, so he really enthusiastically devours his romaine.  He had green on his lips when I came to see him, so he had been munching wild plants, but he does prefer the wet juicy romaine leaves when he can get them.  He doesn’t actually drink any water, even if you leave it out for him. He gets all his water from plants.