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Special Christianity
February 19, 2017
— 1 Comment
President Donald Trump embraces several political stances important to his conservative evangelical base. This includes support for “religious liberty” legislation and exempting evangelicals from laws upholding lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual rights. However, Trump does not demonstrate any of the beliefs that have historically characterized evangelicalism. Unlike the majority of American evangelicals, he does not…
via This 19th Century Movement Could Explain Donald Trump’s Faith — TIME
#WritePhoto Destined To Meet
February 17, 2017
— 16 Comments
summerhouse
The long trek to the remote village has exhausted the group. The backpacks grew heavy as they walked for miles in the woods. They had all come to be part of a writers’ retreat designed to spark creativity. The accommodations in the country were intended to take the group away from day to day concerns in order to concentrate on writing. Most of them came from big cities and were not accustomed to primitive conditions. They were told they would need to pump water and carry wood, but this sounded more romantic at the time than it was when they started scouting for fire wood in the wet forrest. The rain had drenched the woods, so all the wood was too wet to start a fire. They had no wilderness skills, and were weary and wasted before they even started the weekend. The emotions were tightly wound before they even saw the bunk beds in the attic where they would sleep, dormitory style.
On Saturday morning they awoke to find no staff at the summerhouse. There was a sign left on the screen door that said, “We have gone to town. Now you go to town.” This naturally infuriated the writers who had come to be taught some kind of creative trick to unlock their talent. “Go to town? What the hell does THAT mean?” Left to their own devices, they scattered into space to figure out what to do. Sitting under the shade of a large oak tree Emily spotted Eric. He was wearing a velvet coat, leaning against the trunk of the tree, casually smoking a pipe. She approached him with caution, but when she clearly saw his handsome face she was instantly smitten by this stranger in the woods. She wondered why he was so calm, cool, and dressed like a person from a different century. He explained that these woods are haunted with the ghosts of writers who never pushed themselves beyond their limits. They are the real ghost writers. They can never be free because they dissed their muse while they were alive.
When Emily awoke back in New England in the 21st century she knew she had just met destiny in a dream. Her muse, Eric, would be her greatest asset, and it did not matter that nobody else could see him. He was hers alone. He faithfully pushed her to work with words every day. Their tryst was a gift from the creative creator of creation, and would last forever and ever.
To enjoy more interpretations of this photo by other writers, please visit Sue Vincent, who provides these in fleek prompts each week. Read, comment, or try your hand at fiction here.
#writephoto
Digital vs Manual Skills
February 16, 2017
— 1 Comment
post cards from the world
The journey into my stationary drawer and the the mailbox this month is a very healthy investigation into my skills. #InCoWriMo is a challenge in correspondence by hand, by snail mail during the month of February. I have received the most beautifully written letters from around the country. I am so impressed with some of the cursive that I tried it myself. Good grief, was I ever bad at it. It is not like riding a bicycle, it does not come back naturally. I was never great at penmanship, but I could do it 50 years ago. I am not sure when I switched to printing, but it probably was in architecture school. When I attempted to write longhand it was incredibly challenging, and I only lasted a short paragraph before I abandoned hope. I also notice how very addicted I am to spellcheck. I halt in the middle of writing a word by hand, and no magic feature steps in to spell for me..I am almost disabled by this. I have personally lost my own skills by not practicing them. It is not too late for me to recover lost skills of youth.
My new pen pals have shown me that I lean to hard on digital skills. If the internet goes down what will become of me? I must balance my creative life by spending some of it by hand on paper..I can still take a picture of it and post it on instagram. I used to sew, draw, write songs and poetry, all without computer assistance of any kind. I even had a treadle sewing machine at one point. I made my living as a production potter, throwing pots on a kick wheel. I was such a home grown/ hand made/ alternative economy hippie that I did now own a television. Now I hear people talking about going back to the old Nokia un-smart phone to regain balance in life. I don’t really have a phone addiction so much as a general digital device issue. Balance for me will involve spending more time writing by hand. I need the tactile therapeutic value of putting the pen on the paper. The muse responds differently than when it is coming through a keyboard. My manual muse needs encouragement. What about you, gentle reader? Do you still write by hand?
History of Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2017
— 3 Comments
Saint Valentine
In February everyone’s heart turns to love… and chocolate… but mostly to love. February 14 is the day we show those special people in our lives how much we truly care. But did you ever wonder why? Who was Saint Valentine? And why is February 14 so special? Well, let’s have a look at the history of Valentine’s day and see if we can find out…
Who was Saint Valentine?
According to legend, Valentine was a priest who lived in Rome during the third century. At that time, Emperor Claudius II, who liked going to war, discovered that married men didn’t make very good soldiers. For some reason, they were more concerned about staying alive and providing for their wives and children than about enlarging the empire for him. So, he simply outlawed marriage for men of soldiering age.
But Vicar Valentine was a romantic at heart. He couldn’t bear seeing young lovers…
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Fermented Full Moon Fun
February 13, 2017
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Luke’s Pizza
Luke’s Pizza
towel toss
Luke’s Pizza
Hop Shop menu
The Metal Arts Village has a party every month with open artists’ galleries, live music and food trucks. This month was special because there as a DJ’d yoga class in the parking lot, and some acrobats on silk fabric hanging from a big tripod. The crowd was happy and the entertainment was fantastic. The fuel that kept the fun going was as ancient as human partying itself–fermentation. Beer is a fermented beverage, and pizza dough is a fermented grain product as well. Brewers and bread makers often combine to use the leavening from a beer in a bread. This kind of artisanal food production is rampant in Tucson, which is a happy thing for us. I am not the biggest beer drinker, and try to keep my pizza eating to a minimum, but do indulge when the time and the quality is right. Full Moon Party at metal Arts Village is just such an occasion.
I drank a glass of excellent stout aged in a bourbon barrel as a starter. Bob had a more bitter stout, which he stuck with for the day. I switched to a cappuccino stout from Lagunitas Brewery that made me happy. We sat with a couple drinking a red pilsner that was yummy also. This is the kind of place where people taste each other’s beer, no fear of cooties. Our table companions were interesting and cool with two dogs under the table. We enjoyed chatting with them. We all noticed Luke of the pizza truck trowing a towel in the air, pizza style. From a distance is certainly looks like dough. I went to investigate the situation and enjoyed learning about Luke’s dough and fermentation process.
He uses a sourdough proofing to create an amazing crisp thin crust. His wood fired oven takes 4 hours to heat up, but once it is hot the pizza cooks quickly. We ordered the pesto pizza from the menu and added jalapeño and garlic. This rates as one of the pest pizzas we have ever eaten. We will now become groupies of Luke and follow him around town when he parks at breweries and events. I can highly recommend this pizza with Lagunitas cappuccino stout..it is dreamy on the tastebuds. It would be good with any beer….or without beer.
The flying acrobats were fabulous, but the night was still young. One of my favorite artists in Tucson had set up a table top sell little stuff from her garage, and I was able to buy a piece of her art for almost no money. I now own an original signed Lynne Rae Lowe metal sculpture, that was derived with an amazing story. It is a Shabbis angel. She is highly symbolic, and now has a place of honor in front of a lamp I made myself. This is huge, and unexpected. I bought her on Shabbat, right before sunset on Saturday, then I walked home. OY!!!! Magic Moon!
#WeekendCoffeeShare Moving The Feast
February 11, 2017
— 9 Comments
Barrio Bread
Barrio Bread
The movable feast known as weekend coffee share is itself on the move. Our gracious hostess Diana has arranged to hand off the coffee party action to Nerd in the Brain next weekend. We will still be a band of writers bonding over digital beverages and stories on the weekend. I am sure the move will not disrupt anyone. Thank you Diana, for finding us a new address to continue the party. If we were having coffee today I would invite you to taste some of the bread I just brought home from Barrio Bread. It is still warm, made from local grains, and crusty like crazy fire . I just had a smoked mozzarella sandwich, grilled, with all the trimmings. I can whip one up for you while you relax and tell me how you have been and what you have planned. We are very proud of this bakery, and would love for you to try our local organic, totally groovy food products. Our city is a UNESCO culinary heritage city because of our deep agricultural traditions and knowledge. I love to show it off to tourists.
It is warm here, and the peach tree is budding out. The grapefruit is still very full of fruit, although I am juicing like crazy. I hope you will help yourself to a big glass of ruby red grapefruit juice, with or without whipped vodka, as you tell me about your writing this week. Mine is rolling along, with the weekly photo prompt working for me very well. This week I wrote a short poem, still on the depressing side, a thinly veiled reference to current politics. The prompt picture was a fire, which gave lots of leeway. I wrote about pants and vanities on fire, since I feel this is our current backdrop for news in the real world. I plan to continue the once a week fiction with Sue Vincent’s prompts because it is inspirational to read all the other takes on the same picture. I do want to write more fiction someday. This is a good warm up for that day. I like taking a break from just the facts.
I am enjoying my correspondence challenge #InCoWriMo more than I imagined I would. I have gotten mail from several people I do not know, and a couple I know in on-line relationships. It is a blast to both send and receive the snail mail. Most of my pen pals have great penmanship and sealing wax, etc. I admire it, but that is not what I have to offer. My correspondence has enclosures and a little bit of art. My biggest advantage is all the cards and specialty paper I have collected around the world. I have started to enclose extra postcards so my pen pals can send them forward, and I get rid of twice as much collected choice paper. I also send a temporary tattoo and my biz card. Today I mailed some hollyhock seeds to Kentucky to a perfect stranger…Perfect!!
#InCoWriMo
I send or hand deliver more than one letter a day. I may get carried away with this and just keep mailing letters until all my paper is gone. It is so much fun, and I do have the supplies. I am meeting people and getting such a thrill out of checking my mailbox every day. I guess it is like riding a bike because I used to be a big letter writer, but not for many years. If anyone in coffee share wants to receive mail from me in February please send me your snail mail address on this secure form. I promise I have no reason to share it with anyone and will only use it to send you handwritten notes and surprise gifts from my exotic stash.
If we were having coffee today, I would recommend the grapefruit juice and invite you to stick around to go with us later to the local beer garden and metal arts village where there will be yoga with a DJ followed by live music, fire performers, stilts, acrobats on silk, and lots of hipsters. We will rock the full snow moon in our summer clothing. It is free and all in the hood. Stay and soak up Tucson before you go back home. For those of you who want to read, write, or post this week visit Diana here. See you next week at Nerd on the Brain. Cheers!
#WeekendCoffeeShare
Full Moon/Eclipse in Leo: The Return of the Feminine
February 10, 2017
— 1 Comment
Time to shine
The Full Snow Moon/Eclipse in Leo + Comet 45P/ Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
February 10, 2017 at 7:32 p.m. EDT
Comet 45P/ Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
This is one of my favorite times of the year, the Snow moon, and with a fresh blanket of snow in my neck of the woods in Brooklyn. I think it’s the first real snow I have seen all winter here, and I really love the show mother earth put on today. We have an amazing portal to higher things opening on this Full Moon, and I am in awe of its generosity, opportunity and potential. Contradictions, upsets, openings, beginnings and the containment of opposites, so we can peel back the layer of mist that has caused so much confusion to us all. So many things going on. Let’s get to it!
Personally, Leo moon in the 12th house means it’s a time of finding out what makes you shine, what your…
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#writephoto Pants And Vanities On Fire
February 9, 2017
— 9 Comments
bonfire of vanities
We watched them huddle around the fire to confer
About the plot they hatched to silence her
Laws and rule books were tossed in to burn
The flames grew large and the wind swirled
The bonfire of their vanities was burning in space
They were enveloped in a hellish backfire
There was no remedy for the sudden change
With pants all aflame they tried to conspire
We could neither believe them nor save them
They were consumed by their own vanities.
To participate by reading or writing a post about this picture go to Sue Vincent’s blog. She generously provides a new photo for inspiration each Thursday. Some very creative writers participate, and it is fun to see how the same picture inspires completely different responses in each writer.
#writephoto
Looking Forward
February 9, 2017
— 1 Comment
The Leo Moon is all bright and shiny today, happily soaking up all the attention she can get and encouraging us to do the same. She exchanges witty remarks with Mercury in Aquarius first thing this morning before basking in the pleasure of a trine to beautiful Venus in Aries. The warmth of the fiery […]
Vibration Platform Routines
February 7, 2017
— 1 Comment
I have been using my vibration platform for at least 15 minutes each day for a few weeks. Some days I do it in different positions for 30-45 minutes. I have been experimenting with speeds, and programs, as well as positions. I have been enjoying it and think it is having a positive effect on my general health. I found a couple of good videos to teach me various new options. This smooth moving sequence above looks like a vinyasana…constantly in motion. I like the idea of using a mat for traction on the floor behind the platform. I am going to incorporate some of these ideas and positions into my routine.
My neighbor Heidi has been using it also and we both like it. We talked today about finding more material to try on our platform. I am crazy about the Philippine version below of vibration plate class. This is used like a vibrating step…wild!! He also does an eight count then changes position. I have been holding positions as long as I can, like squat, backward bend, etc. I see the fun of changing positions constantly, but we will use different music. There are other demo videos on Youtube with more ideas for those of us who love to vibrate. These new ideas keep it fresh. I am a big fan. Have you tried the power plate, gentle reader? It is an efficient way to get a great workout in t short time and drain your lymphatic system at the same time. I bought it for the lymphatic drainage, and now I find I love it for the way it makes me feel. FUN!!
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