Equinox Trance

We had a lovely ritual on Sunday evening. I thought I'd simply go ahead and share the trance I led while we ate our wonderful food. We arrived and created sacred space. Demeter and, her daughter, Persephone were invoked as it was the shifting time of year where dark begins to take over the light. We quietly filled our plates and sat outside and started eating. What follows is kinda sorta what we did. You might want to try this out as you eat a meal sometime see what happens to you.

Simply eat mindfully. Savor each bite. Chew each food. Take the time to notice and be aware of flavors and textures as you eat your food. Set your fork down with each bite, so that you do one thing at a time. Scoop it up with the fork, smell the food, set it inside your mouth, chew, and set the fork back down. Chew and notice each bite. Notice the temperature of the food. Notice the spices and flavors of the food.

As you become aware of the food you are eating. Think about the loving hands that prepared this food. Be grateful for those hands, for they have made this great gift for you. Chew another bite, be mindful, and grateful for the diverse group around us. This group is as diverse as the textures and flavors that we taste in each bite. Become aware of where the food came from. The gardens that grew the eggplants and peppers, the fields of corn and wheat. The bounty of the earth itself. The earth is nourishing us with each bite. Imagine once again the gratitude for the earth and its gifts of food. 

The earth, the hands that transformed the earths gifts into this flavorful meal. I'm grateful. Are you?

I invite you now to take another bite and imagine this time what happens as we begin to chew and digest these gifts from the earth and from the loving hands that are part of this community. You swallow and the food makes its way to your stomach where digestion begins. Changing the food into a liquid form and breaking it down into its vital components. Fats, carbohydrates, proteins all are separated and move through the stomach to begin being absorbed. Organs like the liver, the gall bladder and the pancreas emit enzymes that help break these complex structures into their individual nutrients and they are absorbed into our blood stream. Moving through our body are the gifts of the earth, the gifts of our friends, to nourish and sustain this human body. In your minds eyes see the nutrient components making their way into vital organs, into the bones, into the tissues, into the muscles and into the cells that make up these complex body parts. The nourishment enters the cells. 

Within the cells are the mitochrondria. Organelles that act as power packs for each living cell. Let the nourishment move into the mitochondria, feeding that power pack so that it can strengthen the cell, making it vibrant and alive and ready for what cells do best. Replicate. The nourishment of life from the earth creates life within our bodies. The gifts of those who love us give us life at the most basic level, the level of the cell.

Within our body are unformed cells. They call them stem cells. These cells have not been programmed. Imagine the food moving into these cells to nourish them. These cells are called shape shifters and are able to become blood cells, bone cells, tissue cells. They repair organs, have the potential to cure illness. They have the ability to make life. They have the ability to sustain life. Nourish them, using your will and your mind, work with these unformed cells to become whatever it is that you might need. Know that it is quite possible to use this vision beyond this time that we are in right now.

They say the human cell is made up of 3 trillion atoms. One cell. 3 trillion atoms. I invite you to let your mind step into one of those atoms.  The swirling of the electrons around the protons and neutrons. Reside in this space. This space of being in between matter. We find ourselves here today in this between time. We are between night and day. In our minds eye, at the subatomic level, the sun doesn't shine here, but there is bountiful light. Rest for a moment in this space. Think about what nourishes your own soul? What sustains you as you swirl in this mysterious place. It is the place of mystery. It is the place of the unknown. Be there for a moment. Is there space for gratitude here?

Take another bite to eat or simply take a drink of juice/water. Begin to return to your own consciousness. Stepping outside the atom. Outside the cells of your body. Outside the digestive system and back into your own body at this place and this time. Chew your food. Drink your water/juice. This nourishes are body, but what do you return with that will nourish and sustain the soul as we move towards the dark time of the year.

Drink. Say your name three times. Name three ways you are different from an atom.

Blessed be.  

Nonprofit update

Sometimes I forget to share bits and pieces of my life that are so diverse, but yet, in my mind it is all connected. I've added a couple of new blogs on the nonprofit part of this simple website. I too am back in school for the semester and working away at a couple of classes this semester. I've worked it out so that I'm retaking my comprehensive exams that I failed. One, after the Thanksgiving break. The other after the Christmas break. As for now, the independent study I'm working on is something I've been working on all year. I did 19 interviews of board members this summer and am coding them with a new qualitative data analysis software called Atlas ti . This is a new learning experience and learning curve so I find that it is taking a bit of time. In addition, the other course I'm taking right now is on leadership research. We've spent the first few weeks tracing the history and development of different leadership theories. It seems that the field of leadership is pretty diverse and there is little agreement about what is real. This last week we got into Implicit Leadership Theory, which is relatively new part of the field, but it studies followers. Can you say, duh? It's about time.

I sat at the spinning wheel for a good while this week too. I had missed a couple of weeks there and I'm glad I had it.

Oh. The girls went to the vet yesterday for their annual check up and shots. Rumor has it that they tried to convince the whole staff they were having near death experiences. Yeah. Right. They came home and settled back in without any traumatic reprecussions.

Busy week

It has been a busy week. This week TUW's annual campaign kicked off. I spent alot of the week doing campaign related activities with corporations that we solicit for support. In addition, I started working on a scarf. It's called the "Princess Grace Scarf" and I'm using a green lace weight Alpaca and it is so soft. It is absolutely amazing. I've still got to get the walls in the kitchen painted, but I'm not sure when I'm going to do that.

Pagan Pride was on Saturday. I went to the opening ceremony and then helped Wren with the workshop that Dragon's Cauldron did on Labyrnths. It was a good little workshop.

Finally, some relief from the heat. I don't know about you all, but waking up with windows open and it being 58 degrees made me feel just wonderful today.
 

Doin' the snoopy dance

Well, the new floor got put in on Friday, the new stove arrived on Saturday. I moved my dining room table and chairs back into the dining room (from the office where it had served as a crafts table). Now I'm going to cook supper for my friend Wren. Woohoo!!

One of those days

Ever have one of those days??? Well, Thursday was it for me.

The tile guys were supposed to come at 8:30 AM. They didn't show up till 9. I had unearthed a spot this weekend that I thought they would fix before they laid the tile. These are floor guys right? No these are tile guys. They couldn't fix the rotted patch of flooring (thank goodness it was dry) that was under the refrigerator. Finally, an hour and a half later, the guy that did my original estimate came out and added another $300 to the job. That sucks! But it has to be done. I'm lucky the whole floor is not rotted away.

So the tile guys and I are hanging out, they bring a few things in and get started. The foreman on the job, asks, "Do you have cats?"

I said, "Yes, but they are put up."

He said, "I could feel them."

I said, "Uh-oh. You may not last."

Within 20 minutes he was outside coughing and audibly wheezing. I was begininng to feel sorry for him, then he decided to pull out his cigarettes and light up. Go figure!!

So I get to work, and there is a phone call from the Employment Security Commission. I left the NC Lesbian and Gay Health Project in 1996. The organization folded in 1999. Somewhere between 96 and 99, the organization failed to pay unemployment taxes in the amount of $300. Not alot, but when I got a call in 2003, I agreed with the ESC that I would be willing to pay half of the taxes and gave them the names of other folks they should call. Assuming from the conversation that all was done. Four years later, "You are the only person who we can track and you owe the ESC $250, which is the tax plus interest and late fees."

How was your day? I hope it was better.