LIfe-Saving Technique

Take two minutes and 20 seconds to learn how to save a life. No mouth-to-mouth or anything else, just chest compression. Could mean the difference between life and death to someone who collapses from cardiac arrest. 

Everything is maya

This is Maya Angelou, a much younger Maya. "Pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you." I can see that attitude in this photo and love it.

Got a pitch in the mail from Oprah to subscribe to O magazine. She listed her top 10 "what I know for sure". One of them was something that made me stop and think and it was advice from Maya Angelou: "When people show you who they are, believe them the first time."

I think how many times I have not done that. Ignoring either the good or the bad. Trying to talk yourself out of liking someone because of your own insecurity, pretending that they are not what you thought they were when you know that they are. Or talking yourself into liking/loving someone who doesn't deserve it. It's all about investing others with your emotions when they can only belong to you.

Memoir, Part 3

This is short and sweet. As I said, my sister Kate came to visit. At one point, she said that she missed our mother who died 5 years ago. There was a deep, shared silence. I came across this video today and thought how lucky I was that I grew up with her singing this song, just around the house, in a gorgeous contralto that "could have been a contender" but instead raised all of us up into the world. I guess this is memoir, part 3.

Andrea Bocelli, "Ave Maria" by Schubert.

Talking to Myself

Eighth grade, American History class. Gary Bowers tapped me on the shoulder and said "Do you know you're talking to yourself?" Well, I didn't but I said I did and struck an attitude of yeah, so what? He didn't care, he just wanted to know if I knew. I guess there is a fine line there but evidently I've crossed it. These days I catch myself talking to myself while walking down the street. It needs to stop but I'm not sure how to stop it.

Being a writer, there is a certain amount of rehearsal that goes on. Before I write this stuff I think it out in my head. My life right now is full of plans, schemes, walking on a tightrope -- there is a lot to talk about! Living alone doesn't help -- there's no one else to talk to. And I actually find myself amusing. This is starting to sound really disturbed.

Sometimes it's helpful; sometimes it's just what Buddhists call the monkey mind. An unruly mind that jumps from one thing to another. I've always had trouble meditating but I can do it -- breathing in, breathing out, letting thoughts pass like clouds on a summer day. Allowing the beat of your heart and your inhalations and exhalations to be in rhythm, locking up the monkey heart and tying up the running horse of intellect. (Luk 1990:48, Chinese classic text) 

Above: "I'm Not Listening" Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings"

Astrocartography readings

Several people asked about the astrocartographical readings. Here is the guy, Scott Wolfram, who did my reading for me -- like I said, fun and illuminating.

http://www.travelerswell.com/

Memoir, Part 2

As for children, there were five of us; three older and two younger but all together we were raised like a bunch of monkeys with strangely graceful manners.

Greetings from Grand Marais

A few years ago I felt unable to put down roots in the city I was living in (Washington DC). Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful place with lots of stuff to do and all those incredible free museums. But I just felt like I didn't belong there . . . so when I saw something called Astro-Locational Astrology I decided to give it a try. Basically, going by the time and place of your birth, a complex chart is generated from the position of stars and planets, the moon, the sun with some precise longitudinal, cartographical, astrological and beneficial places where you might happily live. My ideal location was Melbourne, Australia.

"Where else?" I said, not planning to move to Melbourne any time soon. Well, a little town called Ojai in California. Tempting, but also far away from family and friends. I had mentioned that I was thinking of moving to Minneapolis. The Twin Cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) have that same heavy Saturn energy that was having a negative impact on me in Washington DC but not at all in the same amount so I could handle it. I had also thought about moving to Grand Marais, Minnesota after spending a month there on a writing sabbatical. But I didn't mention that.

There was one more longitudinal line in my favor, a line that came from the south through Kansas City and on up. It was a sweet line, with a strong creative and mentoring type of energy both for me and from me. "It goes up along Lake Superior," he said. "And there is a point here where a lot of aspects meet that is especially good, it's a little town called Grand Marais." Taking my stunned silence for No Comment, he kept going up into Canada but I was thinking that sometimes the things we do that seem silly can turn out to be instructional and illuminating.

I'm here in Grand Marais for "Get Lost". As soon as I got on the road to come up here, I felt a weight lift. The leaves are just starting to turn. I went for a long, rejuevenating hike yesterday with a friend, sat up in a deer stand with spectacular views and had a wonderfully involved conversation about the existence of God. I'm working on a plan to get myself up here.

Everyday miracles

This photo has nothing to do with my post, it just makes me so happy to look at it! This is a French waiter in Paris. I've been thinking about Paris a lot, wishing I could go there, especially this time of year. But it's just the smile on his face, his hat, the scarf, and especially the blues on the building to the right. Up close they are beautiful and varied. So. This is from HipParis.com and I got it from Rae's blog. According to her psychic, Rae spent not just three lives in Paris but three happy lives. 

I want to talk about the fact that I successfully avoided a terrible cold. On Monday I felt it coming, aches in my bones, a headache, a feeling in my throat, fatigue, all the things that mean a cold. If you are in reasonably good health, a cold can be avoided, dodged. I'm serious, I have not been sick for a year, maybe even more than that. If you are depressed or your immune system is low that is a different story but if you are in reasonably good health, try these things: 

The most important thing is to believe that you can dodge this cold. Believe it. Then you can pull out your own arsenal of stuff. I started by taking Airborne, an herbal mix for colds. But the cold was still hovering so I got serious and cleaned up my diet -- no sugar, cut down on dairy and red meat, eat fruits and vegetables, lots of water and tea. Megadoses of Vitamin C (I take 4000 mg.) and some ibuprofen. Some Cold-Eeze, zinc tablets. Zinc has been proven to shorten the duration of a cold but I take it as a preventative measure. Rest when you can, cut out unnecessary stuff (like housework!) Get some exercise, try to sweat a little but not too much. This morning I woke up and knew that I had dodged it.