Potomac sunrise

This morning we walked down to the river. The air was different. Cooler, lighter fresher. After weeks of stifling dead air, filled with stinging invisible dispersants, I felt safer.












Up at dawn we walked down to the river to see the sun come up. How strange to walk with flip flops on concrete sidewalks across asphalt rivers in the dark!!

Actually I just like to go down to the river
because there I see a stretch of Nature
devoid of streets, buildings and
human activity.
We sat on the grassy banks.

And we waited. And this is how it unfolded.


With the naked eye there was no rings of color as seen here.







Just a brightening of the far horizon with

a larger and larger golden aura. And thats it.







The end of another summer. Still a few more weeks no doubt of stifling heat and humidity. But things are winding down, Fall is in the air and if it weren't for the new season ahead full of cool brisk windy days and the promise of nights of easy sleep, I think these last days of the hottest summer ever, would be unbearable.

Decompressing

I learned something new recently. I very wise soul who I met in Encinitas Ca told me a wonderful method to help me with stress. For many reasons, I must learn to live with a high level of stress, due to trauma in my early life.I am hardwired that way.  What he had me do was to sit with myself, and then to remote view or imagine what was in back of me in the room. I was told to look up in the right corner then the left  then to actually leave the room and go outside in my consciousness. I ended up going outside to the street then down the street to the major highway then down the coast past Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Camp Pendleton and then all the way to San Clemente. I imagined myself expanded so that my consciousness was not just trapped in my body but everywhere. The affect it had on me was one of decompressing. When we are trapped in our bodies, we feel imprisoned. This method helped me to see that my stress was really so small, that I was small when identified with my body.  Sometimes when we experience high levels of stress or fear we do want to leave our bodies, but we end up doing this by compressing inward. We disappear inside ourselves. This new way was freeing, and there was a lack of that disappearing type feeling replaced by calm and acceptance. I think this would be an invaluable tool to teach all people at a very young age. Our bodies do not have to be our prisons.

These are the things I pick up on the way through my life. Invaluable tools meant to use daily. And yet I forgot about this until today. Today I find almost unbearable. The weather is still in the 100's and my body and spirit are taxed.   I just did this exercise and I am again feeling somewhat calm and peaceful.

There are so many tools I have that I fail to use because I forgot I have them. Three weeks or so ago, I learned how to use acupressure to relieve the results of injury and trauma. Amazingly this happened soon after an accident I had where I was in the emergency room all afternoon. So the memory of the accident and the day at the hospital are hardly there, but of course my body will not let me forget. I still cannot let anyone touch where the injury was, without flinching. I then remembered how to clear my body memory of the trauma and the emotional release was proof that there is still alot of work to be done here. So there is always some wonderful synchronistic thing going on if we but tap into it. What  I have experienced that helps is to just be open to what information and people are available in your field of vison at the moment. Its that easy. Being out of your comfort zone helps to pick up new and interesting information. Remember the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. 
My life is not comfortable.  But it is when I go out of my comfort zone, out on a limb and out of my box. Then it makes sense, its fun, its joyous and sometimes a bit crazy. And when I live like this, the synchronicity starts happening. And I feel alive and well, no matter where I am.

Love is love is love........ enya..

I love love. what can I say?  It is the driving force in my life, to be in love, even if it is just the being in love with love. I find that if I do not dwell on this feeling all is despair, and pessimism and darkness. some would say I don't see the world for what it is. And I don't.... I see what can be. And if I see what is absolutely stupendous which is usually nature and the hearts of beautiful souls I have known, I dream and dream and dream some more.  And then I talk.  Or I copy the poetry reflecting my dreams and thoughts in my blog. So here is  something from Rumi, I found today in my in box to share with you...... Peace out.... 

Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,

Let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way,

Sleep on.

I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,

And sleep.

 

Keep Asheville Weird

I am here in beautiful Black Mountain  near Asheville NC. for this Memorial Day Weekend,  and saw this phrase on a bumper sticker yesterday "Keep Asheville Weird".  This struck a cord in me. I don't think Asheville is particularly wierd. Its beautiful. Its full of art museums, local art and crafts, organic food stores and restaurants, a college, Biltmore House and has a reputation for being New Agey so lots of conferences and retreats happen here on that wavelength. It is surrounded by Pisgah National Forest, a mecca for nature lovers and sports enthusiasts, aka, bicyclists. People meditate and there are yoga studios here. There are Cherokee Indian roots here, which have not been completely obliterated. Is that wierd?  If this is weird, to have signs of individuality and healthy living still evident then more power to those Ashevillians.
I think weirdness is a desirable trait for our towns and cites which means ourselves ultimately.. Someday I hope to see bumper stickers reading, Keep California Weird, or Keep America Weird. and Keep the World Weird.. The opposite of this is malls and Walmarts which have replicated like a virus across this great nation of individualists and entrepreneurs. The opposite of this is huge factory farms which have replaced family farms. The opposite of this is the huge superhighways cutting thru neighborhoods and annihilating communities which promote a feeling of roots, safety and heritage.  Its ugly and a clear sign that the huge elite owned corporations are stamping out the American dream of  individualism, private ownership, and home grown wealth. In effect all that is near and dear to us. I live in  Alexandria VA outside of Washington DC, and I can see and feel  the difference between Asheville (weird) and DC (not weird on one level yet Oz-like thru and thru.). After a while these kinds of places which promote group-think, seem normal for their lack of promoting or desiring in the populace any form of individuality. Other places  would be military bases, and corporate capitals all across the world.  And since I live in DC I can tell you that is in itself weird in a bad way, a very bad way.
After a while the homogenization of the populace, by dumbing down  the emotions and the intellect, the homogenization of our environment,  be it the countryside (given over to the Elites "Nature Conservancy's" and "National Parks") or our living spaces with the sprawling suburbs of cookie cutter houses,, work places,which are in effect boxes within boxes, shopping places all huge chains now- dulls our sense of adventure, fun and basic enjoyement of life. A world without color, harmony or grace. A world of conformity sameness, shades of gray and concrete. We become afraid to question, to explore, to desire deeper richer textures in our inner life. According to the pundits, that is the direction we are heading.  The way I see it we are being engineered to accept sameness and conformity as the norm and individuality as weird therefore dangerous.
Yesterday I listened to an Alex Jones radio program.   I OD'd on info on the "march of the New World Order".  I personally find it pretty depressing on a daily basis, but every so often (like when there is a lot of down time as on a vacation) we listen to this man and his guests talk about the way things are going.As controversial as he is, he offers  rare gutsy controversial "weird"(aka real)  news. So I learned that Rand Paul (Ron Pauls son) who is running for president in 2012 was demonized by the press wrongly which shot his ratings up. George Soros (NWO evildoer), has  a polling which said his ratings dropped, which is a lie told to us unthinking sheep ( that's the way 'they' think of us- not my thoughts) to steer the populace away from a "loser". Of course there are other polls which reported the opposite. I learned that there are still 1000's of POW's from WWII and Vietnam out there in Russia and N. Korea, because our country made a deal with these two countries in lieu of paying ransom. The man who wrote on this (Paul Craig Roberts) is not a conspiracy theorist, but the one who invented Reaganomics, meaning he has been around in the bureaucracy for a very long time and can be called a credible source.  I learned I need to reread George Orwell's 1984 and Alduos Huxley's Brave New World. The quote.. "they will learn to love their servitude" comes from this book.
So that brings me back to Asheville as a paragon of virtue due to its weirdness. I seem to only enjoy 'weird' and vibe with 'weird' because if it  is what I think it means its not weird. per se. It's being able to think for oneself, in order to get out of the paradigms which are sick and dying and not worth saving. Like the current plutocracy's idea that we need to be controlled, and told what and how to think, etc.
The only safe, intelligent, sane  place to go now seems to be out on a limb. If ever there was a time in history that needs weirdness it is now.  Get in touch with your own brand of "weird". Be a goof ball, a child; (make the grown ups angry).......go run on the beach in the middle of the night naked.(Go against mindless social mores)..... Make up your own songs, paint a mural, write poetry. In effect get out of that box. (Trust your  innate creativity).... Talk to strangers (Find out how gentle and loving the human race is. This will help you realize how  programming has taught us that we need to fear each other). In other words, rediscover the lost jewels of , self empowerment, community, peace, trust- and be happy. They exist outside the paradigm; the boxes we live in. They exist in the natural  world which we collectively shut out like an ugly view from our window.  Turn off the TV and get away from mindless activities and people, who parrot what they learn from these spin masters. Experience your own emotions and your own thoughts, your own inner truth.  No one needs to agree with you, or approve.   You being in touch with this sense of individuality wrongly labeled weirdness which is being in touch with your true self,  will save you in the end. It will save us all.

Roses

I wish I could share with the smell of these roses. Along with the smell of the honeysuckle along the trail. I wish I could share with you the feel of the wind and the speed experienced on a bike. The path sometimes paved sometimes dirt and gravel. The sound of the cardinals, the woodpeckers etc. But here are some pictures of roses, to the left to the right front and behind. All over. I thought of the balance of nature and humankind. How one is not as happy without the other. The people and their minds always working caught in there own little world almost like holding their breath lest the world inside just crumbles into nothingness. And why shouldn't it crumble?
When one experiences this outer world, the gift of nature, one sees the folly of ones thoughts which ultimately are there only to entertain us  with a sense of ego. When nature is in your life, you are not your thoughts; you are part of nature itself. Its almost like coming home and exhaling. Exhaling all that pent up tension of trying to hold it all together.  This wonder of living organisms which do not ask for anything other than to experience them thru the senses keeps me sane. For this reason alone I know that my senses are my friends not to be overcome like some unbearable inheritance for having been born in a body. Ones body is meant to have these experiences.

For what is common sense- besides having all the senses be in accord and at peace and harmony with each other? 

How else are we to know right from wrong?  Its a body thing. The mind merely registers the feelings of this thing called commonsense. Imagine a world devoid of the outer police men the institutions put in place to keep us humans in our place?  Nature and our acknowledgment of our place in it, not above not below, just at one in harmony and in unison. Go out in nature Lose yourself in it. And in the process, find yourself. Your peace, your God, your mother, your best friend.

Spirit and Nature (Love and Beauty)

Good Sunday Morning in May. These are pictures taken this week along the Capital Crescent trail from Georgetown in DC to Bethesda MD. It is along the Potomac River/ Canal Path,  a mere 30 mile round trip bike ride from my house in Alexandria. The smells of the flowers in the trees  and the sounds of the cardinals calls and the feel of the cool breeze I cannot give you but the sights I can.The sky was a rare deep blue.  The overall impression is caught in a poem written by me long ago.Click the pictures twice to enlarge.  

love light

  When darkness sets in

and despair makes a home in your heart,
it is because the lamp of love
has become unplugged from your heart.
 

When sensitivity occupies your mind
like a sentry on a parapet looking for trouble 

 but sees nothing but lightening in the distance
 and mistakens it for incoming artillery,
 It is because the lens
on the telescope of love has become clouded.
Love  brings the distant unreal fears of destruction
into focus and reduces them to nothing more
than the impersonal workings of nature. 


When rage obliterates your capacity to reason,

When excess of sensory stimuli dulls
your capacity to live in simplicity and purity,
When laziness has metamorphosed 
you into a numbed mass of cells, 

It is because you have allowed the power of Love to dull. 

 Love is the razor sharp sword cutting through 
the physical/ mental /emotional/ spiritual debris called ego. 

  It chisels us into the shape and form 

of our soul nature. Love is our soul nature.

Love fights to free love
from its bondage. 


by michelle, circa 2006-ish

Happy Earth Day

Here is a tray of seedlings of mine on my back porch. In this tray are  seeds from my favorite apple Pink Lady, from Trader Joes. It comes closest in taste to a Stayman Winesap, the kind in all the apple orchards I would visit in the autumn as a child in eastern PA. These apples are organic and the seeds had sprouted in the apple! I just had to plant them. I also bought some "heirloom" seeds which have a much longer life than regular hybrid seeds. Its from a company called Solutions from Science. These seeds last up to 100 years if stored properly. I plan on using them all over the course of 5 years maybe more if I must. I might give some away.
I just read an article about Monsanto. How they are charging more for their seeds than regular Non-GMO seeds. Organic seeds are cheaper.  Growing Monsanto seeds also requires Monsanto pesticides and herbicides.  We all know that Indian farmers are absolutelly devastated by Monsanto, physically and emotionally.  49 farmers commit suicide everyday in India due to the trauma wrought by planting poisonous cotton seeds which not only do not produce the yields they promise, but when fed to the livestock, kills them. Where is justice?  In this country 7 states are suing this Satanic tyrant for all the illegal practices including making it nearly impossible to own and store the farmers own seed.  We must put this instrument of genocide to rest. How?? 

Here is some great advice from Dr. Mercola I am quoting below.......

"Allowing Monsanto to monopolize the market could have lethal consequences for all of us. Because not only is Monsanto doing what it can to eliminate competition from other agricultural biotech products, their end game is to do away with conventional seeds, period.As I’ve discussed in many previous articles, this is a threat to human civilization and would spell disaster for the entire planet.Fortunately, you don’t have to be directly involved in the legal or political end of the battle.You, as an ordinary citizen, still have the power to make perhaps an even GREATER difference in how business will pan out for Monsanto – by steering the market demand toward non-GMO crops and foods.Every time you choose to buy a non-GMO product over a product that contains GM ingredients, you are making a dent in the empire that is Monsanto. 

While you’re waiting for the leaders of the world to catch up, take advantage of local sources of organic foods as often as you can. You can also avoid GM foods by:

Reducing or Eliminating Processed Foods. Some 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients. Use the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, available for free at www.NonGMOShoppingGuide.com.

Read produce and food labels. When looking at a product label, if any ingredients such as corn flour and meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine, and tofu (to name a few) are listed, there's a good chance it has come from GM corn or soy, unless it bears the USDA organic seal.
 
 Buy organic produce. Buying organic is currently the best way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified." 

One more way is to grow a garden. Take advantage of the warm weather. Use the seeds from your store bought organic produce, like peppers, eggplant, tomatos, avocados and other fruit like vegetables. Here is  my little contribution to and celebration of the Earth. So think about this. See what you can do, and in the meantime, love your Mother.