Last Day

Today is my son's last day of grade one. How exciting is that?! He is finished his second full year of school, and this summer probably looks as sweet as chocolate ice-cream to him. Last year when he finished Kindegarten, it was nice, but before K., he had always had time to himself, so it didn't seem such a big deal. This year though, free-time finally has some meaning and I think he is very excited about summertime.

He is going to spend a month with his dad, who lives is the mountains along with a grandma, two grandpas and his favorite person of all, Uncle Sean. I am very excited for him, and for me. Time for some relaxation, a road trip, sexy sundays, and major 'summer cleaning'.

My son is brilliant. I know most parents want to believe that, but I am not kidding. He is at the top of his class in all subjects, and he is an excellent artist, singer and seems to be down to one or two days to beat a PS2 game. I am so relieved! My partner is dyslexic and had real trouble in school, I did not have that kind of trouble, but we were poor enough for me to be an outcast which really weighed on my school work. My son has none of these hang-ups, and it seems to be working for him. Yes, yes, I am a proud parent, I know I will stop blabbering about it.

I believe in rewarding good behavior as positive reinforcement, so I told my son that we could go to Toys R' Us today after school. He has never been inside a toys r us, so he will be in heaven I'm sure. Now I am not going to just get him whatever he wants, there are limits, but something smallish.. a new game or transformer kinda thing. And also a couple of books for some good summer reading.

Sometimes I can hardly believe I have a 7yr old. He'll be 8 in November... and 10 in two years. Yes I am jumping ahead, but holyshit does it ever sneak up quickly!

SUMMERTIME!!!

mascarade 

Celebrating Solstice

I disappeared again into the mountains for a few days. I am sure some of you noticed, and this time it was for a very good reason. Besides the best party of the year, the summer solstice, it was my birthday. I have been attending this solstice party for 10 years now, and one of my favorite things about it is that it is my birthday party. It is an awesome thing to have a birthday party that lasts about 3-4 days with an attendance of about 200-300 people. Not every one of those people are people I even know, but the majority (like 92%) are my good friends, my family, and most of the people I happen to adore in life.

This year was a great one. It rained from early morning Friday to late morning Saturday, which would usually be a good reason for people to not show up, but amazingly enough there were about 150 people there on Friday night, willing to live with the rain. I tried to firmly plant the image of a blue sky into every persons head that I possibly could. On Saturday it was totally overcast, but very little rain, a blessing. Being in a meadow the way we were, it was a truly magnificent thing to be surrounded on all sides by clouds. All one would have to do is climb one of the 'bumps' (the name given to the bumpy hills that are glacier remnants) up about a hundred feet and you would have been in the clouds. I'm not much for damp weather, but I do love it when its like that.

Before dinner, which are all potluck all weekend long~incredibly delicious hippy food "Organic wants to be fun too!"~ we always have a circle. Whoever wants to be part of the circle joins us out in the field and we say our names, were we came from or whatever little bit of poetic waxing we wish to do. The best words spoken in the circle were Swamp's, he is an incredible poet, and running in a close second was Wren's, who is a little 5 year old girl. She said "My name is Wren... and I don't think many people know this, but... I have a giraffe in my room!"

When it came to my turn, I said my name and then slowly asked everyone in the circle to, for just a moment... envision... a... blue... SKY! This way they all had to think of it without any choice in the matter... the power of suggestion and all. Sure enough we were all wakened by the sun the next morning. It never ceases to amaze me what the power of many minds concentrating on one thing can do. After the name game we have the spiral dance which seems to be quickly becoming a tradition. If you've never experienced a spiral dance, I highly recommend it. I won't try to describe it, wouldn't come out right, but one day if you join us at Solstice, you will get your chance.

I am a gemini. That means different things to many different people, or to many different astrology books, I only know what it means for me. Versatile is one of the most common descriptions of gemini's, as well as talkative (oh definitely) and often hard to hold onto. I enjoy stretching my versatile legs every year at my birthday party by wearing the costumes I love to collect. This year because of the rain, my cloak came in wonderfully as witch and rain gear. Also I got to belly dance. There are a group of women, young and...not as young, who have been practicing together, they asked me to join them and it was great fun and great work, not to mention that I love the costumes. After 10 years of solstice celebrations I am known for my versatile way of dressing... I am actually trying to inspire a sense of festivity and ritual. Last year I spent a day topless at the party, to reintroduce the nude element which used to be commonplace at these events, it's tough work but somebody has to do it. One of the great things about hippie communities is that nudity is not rationed or exploited, they tend to promote the idea and when you are walking around nude you never feel preyed upon or disrespected. Not that it isn't appreciated and even desired, but no one stares or oogles or makes you feel uncomfortable in any way. It is a real feeling of freedom.

So to finish this off, I am going to leave you with some birthday wisdom from a talkative gemini. "At least once a year party with all your favorite people, dance unencumbered and whole-heartedly around a bonfire, and get naked with your friends as often as is humanly possible."

Goddess Bless.

Ever Wonder?

Do you ever wonder what the world would be like if people were healthy? Can you picture it in your mind? Just try, for a moment, to envision the people around you as healthy, fulfilled individuals. Its not a very easy thing to imagine I think. Sure maybe we can see one or two, a few of our loved ones smiling, laughing being productive. But what about the entire planet?

Is it possible, do you think, for all people to be healthy? When I say healthy, I do not mean; *shaking a finger* "now eat your veggies!" Although food is a part of it no doubt. As my love likes to say "Ah... food, glorious food!" Now that's a great attitude to have towards the essential elements that make-up our bodies. But health is about so much more then food, or physical activity, or environment; although all of those things are important parts of being healthy.

To be healthy is a state of mind. It is a way of life that influences every choice we make, word we speak or action we perform. If a person was living a healthy life, they would not have to be reminded to eat good food or to treat the homeless person on the sidewalk with respect, or to handle their loved ones, including the earth, gently. If we were all living healthy lives, no one would ever get hit with a stray bullet, or mass weapon, or even a fist, and when we spoke about our feelings it would be with genuine understanding and honesty. It would just be the natural way to behave.

I am a natural counselor, meaning I have been listening to people and helping them with problems for most of my life without any kind of training or degrees on the subject. It is truly amazing how much just listening can help a person. One thing I have found, throughout these experiences is that so many people in our culture (but not ours alone) come from really unhealthy environments. It has always intrigued me, seeing how one person can be totally destroyed by a hurtful event, where someone else can survive it with minimal scaring. I think there is a key here, a tool to uncover and put into practice to help those people who would be otherwise crushed. I guess you could say its my mission in life to discover that tool and figure out how to distribute it to the masses.

I have a dream. Yes I do. I dream of a world where people are healthy, where humanity has made it through this painfully awkward adolescence into an aware maturity. I can see it, if only briefly, but I see a world in which democracy really does work because our leaders belong to our communities; there are no empires, or dictators for if there were such people who aspired to these ends, the group over which they would preside is never large enough to conquer anything but its own failings. It is shown that democracy really can work on smaller scales, this is our answer. Not an easy one is it?

In this world I envision, we learn about learning, about the necessary growth inherent to our existence and so welcome, rather then fear, changes. Each new experience can enhance our overall knowledge and understanding of what this existence is about. To block or deny any of it is to deny certain aspects of the astounding experience, which in turn limits your capacity to better grasp the 'big picture' and function within your life. A wise monk has said "If you lose, don't lose the lesson." There is great power in this, if you truly head the advice. So no matter what happens you will gain something and so never be a victim or powerless.

Healing is a matter of thought as much as any involvement with the body. It has also been shown that the mind, how we think, is directly connected to how we feel physically and vise versa. So in fact we can affect our bodies with our minds. Imagine if people intentionally went about their lives thinking about having healthy bodies, purposefully using their minds to affect their physical health. Do you think that those people would have unhealthy minds with such knowledge and purpose? Some people actually do live their lives that way, but I like to think about it on a mass scale, envisioning whole paradigm shifts. I believe it is possible, and so if I do then there must be others who do too... the interesting thing about a paradigm shift is that it takes a certain "critical mass" to cause the shift, or to maintain it, for that matter. I wonder just how many people need to share an idea before it makes the shift occur...

I think that one of the hardest parts about healing is that the person doing the healing has to first acknowledge that there is a wound at all. This is where most people give up, it seems to big a job or else to admit to the wound would cause such pain that it seems an undesirable thing. The problem is also that many people have spent their lives denying those pains and can't hardly see them for the topical pain they have produced to cover up what's scary underneath. The trick is that if one was to deal with what's underneath, the aches and illnesses, anxiety and fear would fade away. To heal your mind is to heal your body.
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You have just been through a rant in my head... I hope the journey was enjoyable and entertaining if anything. If it was at all painful, please go immediately to your nearest good friend and have a good laugh, cause you probably need it. If you can't find a friend, go rent Bubble Boy, or Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. If you are uptight (why are you still reading this) you might want to rent something else a little more tame like Finding Nemo. Either way... HAVE SOME GOD DAMNED FUN!