Spinning Straw into Gold

I am creating a wonderful life day by day and moment by moment. We plan longer and more elaborate trips maybe twice a year, but it is the little outings and the magic that I am able to create on a daily basis that makes my life worth living. I want to keep this present in my mind, I am responsible for keeping my life fabulous. Often times it feels like I am an alchemist when it comes to my life, I spin straw into a golden life.

Simple Delights

Warm sunshine on my face is one of the simple delights in my life, and now I have started a photo journal/plog that highlights my life as a woman of leisure. I am a magician creating a lush life for myself and my family. In photos, I hope to tell the story of how it is the simple things that weaves the joyous, blissful and exciting fabric which is my life.

City Life

Beautiful granddaughter

Beautiful

Jazz, tea and We

the buddha throne

Easy breezy @ Peeble Beach

Today was a fantastic day on the Northern California coast, I have to specify which part of California I am talking about because I don't really like the Southern California's bay watch type beaches. This beach is my favorite beach to stretch out on, even though there isn't any sand, there are only rocks. I feel like such a sea loin when I lay on those rocks and sun myself while listening and watching the roaring sea. I love the sea and the sea loves me back. I have spent some wonderful and some sad days on those rocks. There is a rock outcropping that I call my buddha throne and I sit and envision the buddha sitting in calm meditation before the fury of the sea and not flinching!

Cool places

I went out looking for things to photograph and I found it in this building in San Francisco called the African American Art and Culture Complex but many years ago, we just called it the western addition where we went to take dance, capoeira, drumming and once a year, we would go there to celebrate Kwanzaa. Now, they have added a couple of art galleries, some murals and some new paint to the mix and re-opened to the delight of the community but still when we went last saturday, aside from us and the security guard who acted like we were suspect for even walking in the door, the building was empty. The week before at the grand re-opening, someone posted pictures showing crowds of people standing around while they cut the ribbon and they all poured into the complex, even former San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown was present, so what happened? It must be the same as before, not new and improved but, still paid for by the city thereby giving the people that are running things no incentive to fill the building with paying visitors. It doesn't matter if anybody ever shows up, they will still get paid. So although it is a cool looking place filled with some cool things, I am still waiting for it to really become an art and culture complex.

The first hummingbird cafe

Home again

So we have been back home for at least five days and I am still adjusting. I went out yesterday to a scheduled pedicure and that cause me to lose some of my stored up energy from Sedona, but, I had to go because it is important to me that my friend stay in business. All in all, it was a fun trip but definitely too short due to the economy and the fact that there was no bonus this summer. This trip has made me realize that I have to do an energy gathering trip at least once every three months because every two years just doesn't cut it. In order to stay spiritually healthy we need to go out and gather energy to keep ourselves nourished and protected from the woes and ills of city life. By the time we left for this trip, Charlie and I were running on empty and in desperate need of our southwest sacred journey. At our ages, it is just too risky to let ourselves run on empty for any length of time because illness can creep into a spiritually weak body. Now that we are back at Hummingbird cottage, we have got to jump back into our creative activities in order to sustain the energy that we brought back with us.

Pure Joy

I am overjoyed every time I see my little grandson, he is a powerful being that has much to do so he, arrived almost three months early. He has strength beyond his years and as one woman told me, she thought he came to the planet to do great things. I am excited to see who this little guy will grow into because he is taking the family lineage in a new direction. His dad is Russian with Jewish heritage and to top it all off he was born in Siberia. On my side of the family, there is the obvious and the maybe not so obvious is, the muskogee(aka creek) ancestry from Oklahoma, on my mother's side. I like the fact that both Siberia and the indigenous people of this continent have a shamanic tradition as part of there culture. It is possible that he might learn to speak Russian first because I am told that he gets so excited when his dad speaks to him. His dad is excited about passing on his Russian heritage and we are on point, making sure that he is also strongly rooted in his African american heritage. When I look at him I am overwhelmed to see this little boy who weighed only 1 pound and 15 ounces at birth, growing stronger and coming into a sense of self .

Loving this man of mine

On saturday June 20th, Charlie and I will celebrate our 31 plus years together, and in all that time, the longest time we have ever been apart is four days, but it felt like a month. I adore my sweetie and when first he lay eyes on me, he stared, and every day he would walk by and stare some more and soon, I waited for him to come by and returned the stare. Even after all of this staring, it still took another year and a half for us to get together. Charles is Randian, so he used one of her phrases to state how he saw me, he said , "you have that inexplicable personal alchemy," and I said, I am going to marry you so, if you are not interested, you had better run for the hills. Well, he only ran once , but, he let me catch him and we have been together ever since. It is hard for two individualist to come together harmonious as a couple but I think we have done exceptionally well and the reason is because we truly like each other. I think he is the smartest, most interesting, and handsome man that I know. He is the sun, the moon and the stars(peter pan). So , for the next two weeks, we will celebrate our union, our love, and as we look forward to the next thirty!!

Revolutionary Road-Life in the burbs

I just finished watching a disturbing, sad, well acted incredibly interesting movie, "Revolutionary Road." The acting in the movie was first class but I was fascinated by their portrayal of life in the suburbs as an empty hopeless place where people dwell in a constant state, as Thoreau put it, " of quiet desperation." I said, hold up wait a minute, I live in the surburbs and this is not the reality of my life. So then I starting wondering, what makes people give up their dreams and their individuality and join the collective, the pod? What makes a couple buy a beautiful home to live in and then proceed to stop living and to start just existing and buying time in hopes that something will come along and break them out of their mundane lives?Every time I do a post, I try to find a picture that will illustrate what I am talking about. I looked for a photo of a road and this is what I came up with, a labyrinth and for me it is fitting. For you see, I think that the most revolutionary road one can take is the one that takes you on an inward journey where you can discover your authentic self, your truth, your joy, your dreams and aspirations, your personal style. Once you discover these things about and for yourself, you can live any where in the universe and create beauty and magic.

Manifesting the life you want

Yesterday, the one of the Elders at the temple of Illumination said, "nothing you want is up stream," and then she went on to explain that many people think that in order to get what you want out of life, you have to struggle and fight your way up stream,  she said this is not the case.  She said that it is all down stream and it is found in joy not anger.  I love this because, this is how I live my life.  Joy is my foundation, I have never thought that my destiny was to be found in struggling.  Most people that I know think that real change and growth can only happen through the low times, struggle, sorrow, anger, and so this is what they manifest in their lives.  My way is to flow with life, and to continue growing by nourishing my soul with positivity and to dwell in joy.