Never Be Afraid to Stand Alone

Most people that I encounter are so afraid to go against the group, the mob, the community, the race, the gender but as a true individualist, you have to know that most of the time you will stand alone. In the past few days everybody is buzzing about Erykah Badu's new video and what concerns them is her nudity but what is really exciting is her declaration to not be controlled by the collective and their fear tactics. There is always a understanding that in standing up as an individualist, the collective mob may view you as a threat and try to take you out, to assassinate you physically or try character assassination like they did to Michael Jackson. Most people I encounter are members of the collective and rarely stray from the borg mind, they talk the same, dress the same, listen to the same music, they all embrace the same thing at the same time and they all believe that they are individuals at the same time as a group. What I am saying is that there are a lot of people who are deciding as a group to jump on the individualist bandwagon by claiming that this is who they have been all the time but once again it is actually the group mind deciding that it will claim individuality the way that they claimed spirituality or wearing locs. I have been an individualist for five decades and when I looked around while doing a full moon ritual, I didn't see any other Black folks. Black folks have been some of the worst collectivist because very often diversity has been ridiculed! When my children had locs thirty years ago, Black people were brutal and tried to make our lives miserable but they could not shake me or my family members because we reject the collective mindset. But now, the collective has embraced dreadlocks as an official style and they have stripped away the uniqueness and have opted for a unified look, thin and all the same length, tamed and whipped into a hairstyle and this is cool as long as you do not try to ridicule those that choose to leave their dreadlocks to grow freely in all types of varying shapes and sizes. Dreadlocks as metaphor for life, I am growing freely unimpeded by the collective mind.

Always Ready to Strike a Pose

Nature Speaks

Nature is my great teacher! I am not a religious person at all. By spending time in nature, I have experienced the sacred holiness of life and nature has healed me at the worst of times in my life so I know her power. The day my father died, I went to my favorite beach and climb on rocks that protruded quite far into the ocean. I sat there with my sweetie and a few crabs running over the rocks and cried. I let the healing power of Yemonja wash over me and felt so much better when I left. When my mom died and I was feeling very troubled about her passing, I was out on the bay marshlands in Palo Alto and asked a question and suddenly out of nowhere, a huge flock of birds few all around me and brushed pass my body but did not hurt me and I had my answer. I used to plant quartz crystals all around San Francisco in nature spots. I planted crystals on twin peaks and then laid my body on the bosom of Pacha mama for a healing. I love going to Muir Woods where me and tree can exchange energy, we both exhale and then breathe each other in and we are nurtured.

Supercharged

The hippie in me has been supercharged and now, I am ready for spring! I can't wait to get out in my garden this weekend and start beautifying everything. I need to buy lots of annuals to put in pots all around Hummingbird Cottage. I absolutely loved the gardens at the SchoolHouse compound of which Jasmine Cottage is a part. The owner Karen Gray is a Landscape architect and her gardens were so perfect and lush. I really want to make my gardens more inviting and with the help of the new gardener that I hired, he can do the hard work and I can do the fun stuff.

Renewal

The last four days have been so wonderful and they have truly renewed my spirit. I so needed that trip. It was a relaxing and inspiring retreat for my honey and I. There was nothing that we needed to do, we could just hang out in the beautiful garden at Jasmine cottage where we stayed or venture out to the beautiful lush country, rolling hills, forests, beaches, bays and lagoons. Wild life was in abundance, deer crossed our path, ospreys building nests flying back and forth overhead, even a bob cat running right across the road . I played my guitar in the garden while basking in the morning sunlight. I even danced in the garden to the celtic music. The cottage only had two cds, Beethoven and a celtic music. Everything was perfect, from the fresh flowers in the vase on the table to the wood burning stove. My home, Hummingbird cottage is so pretty that I had not bothered to rent a cottage for five years but, there are many other reasons to rent a cottage, and renting a place in paradise is a great reason. It was so needed, to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and to slow my pace down.

Spring Time

My favorite time of the year will arrive this week, yes, it is spring equinox time and once again the days will be longer than the nights. I love going to a special place to celebrate the holy days and really mark them in some ritualistic way. So this year, we are renting a cottage for a few days in a place that is known for its wildflowers and I can't wait to be there. It is going to be lovely and very restful!

Sassy Fashionista

Funky fresh dressed to impress and Boris is ready to party!

Om Mani Padme Hum

I own sixty Buddhas and one day while purchasing four, I had an encounter with a Chinese woman. She was my cashier and she told me that she was Buddhist and asked me why I buy them all the times. And suddenly, the words came out of my mouth, "I was a Buddhist monk in a past life," I said softly and waited for her response. She grabbed herself and said, "I got goose bumps, I know it is true!" She asked about my dreams and told me to pay close attention to them. So there it is, I was a monk. In this lifetime, I am not a Buddhist but it feels natural to live surrounded by beautiful images of Buddha, my home is a temple. Om mani padme hum!

Letter Writing

One of the best things that I did for myself/my spirit so far this year is, to come together with five other like spirited sistahs as pen pals. Now my already fabulous life has been made more lush by the simple delight of writing personal letters and receiving wonderful multi-layered creative letters, cards and artwork in return. By participating in this simple but powerful ritual, my life has expanded ten fold. We are, all of us, magicians in the act of creating wonder filled lives for ourselves and for all of those who come who bask in our energy. To the mundane eye, letter writing can seem like a tired old fashioned practice but to wise women, it has become an act of power.