Words & Images from the Grand Adventure

Looking at the mountains from Asheville, NC (5/11)

The entire purpose of this Adventure was to attend yet another gathering of my Home Tribe, also known as the Big Glow community. This time, however, I wanted to give myself some more time on the East Coast, instead of flying out, communing, and flying back home again lickety-split. So I "pencilled in" a drum circle to attend before the retreat, and some time to connect with other friends after the retreat; thus did three days (or so) turn into three weeks. As usual, I declared my intentions, and the Universe responded with a bounty of Experience beyond my humble expectations!

Something interesting and unexpected occurred during this Adventure of mine: I found myself reconnecting with the sensawunda I had as a girl, she who dreamed of solving the Mysteries of Nature when she grew up. As the Earth is my Mother, and my Family of Choice are my Soul Siblings, then I was "reintroduced" to a mess of cousins in the Natural World. (LOL) So let me point out some of the highlights of my Adventure - those moments that made the Little One within squeal in delight...mainly because this West Coast girl was seeing some native East Coast flora & fauna for the very first time with her own eyeballs! :-)

Mr. & Mrs. Goldfinch (Gerton, NC 5/11)

Insert first squeal of delight here, when I saw goldfinches, in their Summer Finery, feeding outside my hostesses' window! It took some stealthy ninja tactics to photograph them, but photograph them I did, with their permission!

Seagull. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

I am familiar with seagulls, unless they have black heads. Then I stop and ask them if I can take their picture. These gulls fascinated me utterly, since they were a new variant on a familiar theme.

Jellyfish. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

I must have seen at least a dozen jellyfish during my stay by the sea, washed up upon the shore at various times. Yes, I touched them, on their harmless domes - not on the bottom, where the nasty stinging tentacles are! I was surprised to feel that their domes were hard, almost plastic-feeling, and not anything like gelatinous.

Two wee sea anemones. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

I love the ocean. As such, I am a bit biased in taking my pictures. ;-)
I loved seeing oysters instead of mussels on the rocks, and the different types of barnacles.

"Collage du Mer" (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

Grandmother Ocean arranged these shells so artfully. I did nothing except take this picture to admire Her creativity. :-)

Petrified Trees. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

This was part of an entire forest of petrified trees & wood bits on the shoreline. It was a natural cathedral, and I spun up some impromptu ceremony in this sacred space.

The Postmistress. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

My sisters and I occasionally departed our beach Base O' Operations to make forays into town, or at least, places of denser population. I found this lovebug on one such excursion. Cat and Crow medicine followed me out to the East Coast; the latter birds wouldn't hold still long enough for me to document their presence! (LOL)

Blessing of the Chickens. (Mebane, NC 5/11)

Okay, I have seen chickens on the West Coast. However, they didn't come out to greet me and bless me with their presence like these did. (They thought I had food, but I didn't. They came to wander around my feet anyway.)

Leaf, with Dew. (Mebane, NC 5/11)

Animals weren't the only things that caught my eye...and Mother Earth is also a Divine Artist.

Cicada. (Mebane, NC 5/11)

Our retreat happened to unfold during the time the cicadas emerged from their long dormancy to mate and lay their eggs before perishing en masse. It was fascinating to hear the sound of their wingbeats fill the air with an almost extraterrestrial noise. It was not as fascinating to experience them as living hair accessories! At least, I wasn't as appreciative of that cicada in that moment... ;-)

Termites! (Gerton, NC 6/11)

Staying with the bug theme a moment longer, I was fascinated by this spontaneous mass migration of termites from a dead tree on the property of my hostess. My first thought when I saw this plethora of tiny wings flitting in the air? "Fairies!" There's an innocent child's remark! :-)

Gray Squirrel. (Gerton, NC 6/11)

Oh yes, the squirrel medicine followed me as well. I was equally amused and amazed by the ease with which they could gallop from branch to branch, tree to tree, earth to sky and back again. :-)

The "Finger Tree." (Atlanta, GA 6/11)

I was awed to see the hand rising up to the sky in this tree, so I received permission to take the picture. Can you see the hand?

Un duck. (Atlanta, GA 6/11)

I see ducks on the West Coast - just see some of my earlier entries - but not with this coloration of plumage.

Settling in for the night. (Atlanta, GA 6/11)

Duck, duck, Goose! Geese I don't see on the West Coast, so I was honored to catch a glimpse of this extended family during my brief stay in Georgia.

Star Flower. (Naples, FL 6/11)

 This flower caught my eye because it was a stand-out, regardless of what coast I'm on. Another Divine Work of Art.

Butterfly Trickster. (Naples, FL 6/11)

...and the Butterfly Medicine was present for me in the East as it is in the West. Their increased presence especially during the second half of my Adventure was a quiet reflection of the shifting that unfolded within me on the trip.

This shifting is still taking place in this moment...

Now the words are here again... :-)

Peeking above the surface once more. (Naples, FL 6/11)

I chuckle when I see it's been nearly two months since I visited this blog. There were times when I wanted to write,but the words would not come...so I let them abide.
There was also a time when I really didn't want to say anything. This was right after Beltaine, when I found myself feeling rather Disconnected - and more, discouraged. Summer is supposed to be a time of great growth; as this season begain, I was feeling anything BUT. Yes, I was throwing a little pity party for myself - putting in "all this work" (which wasn't a whole lot, comparatively speaking, if truth is to be told) and not getting "any" results. The results were coming, just not in the way I wanted them to manifest: that is, as money, as a source (or sources) of steady income. That's where the discouragement was coming in - if this effort to Be the Priestess wasn't bringing me any results, what was the whole blessed point? If I'm not supposed to be a Priestess, what the sam-hill AM I supposed to be? More disturbing was the thought: what if I have been wasting my time? What if (gasp!) mom was right, and I need to find a muggle job after all? Perish the thought!

Following my path back to the center. (Naples, FL 6/11)

What I really needed was to re-center myself. All of the shifting energies around me were throwing me out of equilibrium. To find my way back to center, I wound up leaving my physical center - my home in SoCal - and traveled back east for a time. In this Grand Adventure that lasted three weeks (though it seemed like it lasted three years, at times!), I found myself again.
I found myself through letting go of some dearly held expectations, which allowed me to open up to what unfolded before me in the Now. I found myself both in the company of cherished friends and also in rich, comfortable solitude. I found myself in the mountains, by the sea, near tiny blips of towns and in the hearts of grand metropoli. I found myself in the loud pounding rhythm of shared drum-beats, in the ubiquitious background whirr of ten thousand pairs of cicada wings, and in complete, deep silence. Most importantly, as a subtle, gently pervasive thread throughout my wanderings, I found myself, again and again, In Nature.
I also found myself in some of the most Divinely Exquisite food I've ever eaten...

...like this Fried Green Tomato Salad. (Folly Beach, SC 5/11)

Successive entries will detail this Grand Adventure a bit more in depth. :-)

It's been a week since I returned home to my Casita de California. The luggage is long since unpacked, the laundry done, the treasures admired and squirreled away. I've come to realize that some of the detachment I was feeling prior to my escapade - and am feeling after it - comes from a very radical shift in perspective, thanks to my interactions with members of the Tree Nation. There is a Serenity present within me that comes from those who measure time in centuries, not in seconds...and I'm still assimilating this new sensation, so it feels a bit alien, yet. Another factor is the fact that I've actually been a bit out of my body: part of my Awareness remains within me, but part of my Awareness is elsewhere, out on the Light Grid that is forming around the Earth, as I do my part in the necessary Work of Transition. This agreement I'm rewriting a bit - lovely and necessary as this Work is, I have come here to enjoy my Experiences in a Flesh-Body first and foremost. So I'm sharing the load a bit more, "doing" a bit less by myself so I can be more centered in my body. Once again, it seems I need to learn not to "bring the work home with me" after a long night in my Dreamtime Office! (lol)

I'm back. Anyone miss me? ;-)

On being...a Renunciate

...You may find yourself living in a beautiful house

With a beautiful wife

And you may ask yourself,

"Well, how did I get here?"

(Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime")

That's the question I've been asking myself as of late - Well, how did I get HERE?
It has taken my review of my Taoism books to make some blessed sense of the frequency I'm inhabiting these days. For a bit over a year, I've been all but unemployed...and truth be told, not terribly inspired to look really hard for a new job. I've been wanting to cultivate/co-create my own source of steady income - merging my Work with my work - and have precious little manifested for myself!

(Now, before I go further, absolutely no worries, all right? I'm not two steps away from homlessness. Financially, I'm okay. Promise.)

I found the word that fits me these days in one of my Taoist books: renunciate. Double-checking with ye olde dictionary, I confirmed its fit: one who has renounced (given up, disowned) something. Well, yes, I've given up quite a few things that used to inhabit my life, including sugar, gluten, dairy (most of the time, except for some occasional cheese), televised news, and most shows that pass for "entertainment" these days. Outside of sports programs, I don't watch a lot of TV anymore, in truth. I would also say I've disowned the apocalyptic, fatalistic, and "poor-me-I'm-such-a-victim" mindsets - more importantly, I don't have room for these mindsets in my life. With my sensitivities to energetic ebbs and flows seemingly increased a thousand-fold, my BS Meter is set off pretty easily...and it doesn't take a whole lot TO set it off these days! "Nope, don't have the time for you in my reality. Toodles!"

When I left my muggle job at the answering service last year, I didn't intend not to work again (hardly) at all. I didn't desire to cut myself all but entirely out of the ebb and flow of the collective Agreement we call "Civilization" - yet this is the place where I've wound up, bobbing nearly solitarily in a pond I've never seen before and not entirely sure in which direction to swim to find other bobbers. Maybe I really don't want to move about at all!

This is where my faith comes in...Grand Movements are afoot. Though I can't see them, and I don't really know (if I'm completely honest with myself) exactly where I'm going, I know I'm on my way to an Awesome Destination. Most of the time, I'm actually enjoying the journey - and in truth, it's not like I've just been twiddling my thumbs and waiting for special dispensation from the Pope. I have been uber-busy, but most of the work has been internal. Now and again, though, I wonder, Well, how did I get here, and what's going to happen next?

In this, I'm no different from anyone else in not knowing THE answer...so I'll just keep ambling along until the sun rises and shows me the rest of the path that my feet are following. :-)

(31 in 31 - #6) "She Cleans Up Well" ;-)

First,
She takes a brush to her hair
To evict the metaphoric rats that have taken up residence
Iin the massive tangles beneath the slope of her skull.

Next,
She methodically sheds her fabric skins -
Articles that had kept her together during her Metamorphosis in the Chrysalis
When the boundaries of her life had melted and her essence had become a glorious goo.
Now they are heavy with stagnant qi and fragrant in politically incorrect ways.
She folds them up with gratitude and silently surrenders them to the Holy Laundry Hamper.

Then,
She enters her bamboo grotto,
Washing away any lingering fears and doubts beneath her faux waterfall.
She tiptoes from bath to boudoir, steaming, shell-less, and soft.

Eventually,
She emerges from her sanctuary, fresh new fabric skin covering her form,
Imbued subtly with that seductively nurturing fragrance, Vanilla Body Lotion!
One last drying and brushing of her hair to shed any final vestiges of snarled nests.

Finally,
As she steps out the back door,
She glances at her reflection and smiles:
The human disguise still fits.

Further Along Realignment Road

No worries, I'm still here. Giving myself an opportunity to check in...

I figured, with the big energy shifts last month (detailed here), that I would be "knocked offline" for a few days, then I'd jump back into the cyber-stream, publishing bits of punk poetry and puttering around here and there.
I expected to be de-centered.
I didn't expect to be de-centered so completely. Once more through the wash-rinse-spin cycle of Life, aye!
I wasn't personally in Japan, but Shit Howdy that was a powerful quake! (Pardon my Swahili) I am gaining more and more empathy with those who have been feeling the movements of Gaia and the Collective Consciousness since Day One of their existence...I started to feel these sensitivities way later in life, and damned if I haven't been knocked for a loop every single blessed time something major goes down!
I am, however, continuing to find my way through - through the storms, through the stillness, through the fear, through the uncertainty. I close my eyes, touch the Earth, breathe into my belly, and eventually everything starts to make sense again.
After the Equinox, I've recovered some Creative mojo, and I've taken up my book again. Yes, I've joined every other person alive today and am in the process of writing a book...actually, it's more like transcribing the dictation I've received from the Universe. Think my Wetware blog, only more free-ranging and, dare I say, political. (hee hee)
Also after the Equinox, I began what I'm calling a Spring Cleaning of my chakras. Not quite two down and I've already uncovered loads of Shadow-material to be cleared! Let me reach a stopping point on that, then I'll share. I'm setting an intention that this internal Spring Cleaning will also manifest in external ways, to the benefit of all in my realm! (mainly my mother, who really doesn't like all of the clutter. lol) ;-)

I will take up the poetry posting again, soon. I will be a bit more talkative, soon. I wanted to stop in and say all was well in my world - and still looking rather sunny and bright, despite the shape-shifting. I'll close with some random beauty...

You can't go wrong with a lovely ocean shot, can you? ;-)