Ceremonies Inspired by Deborah Blake's Magic & Julie Brook's Firestacks

 The election left me shaken to the core, like so many others.

I feel the need to respond in some big way. Though I don't think discourse is the answer for me. 

Instead I am planning a ceremonial response.

The intent of my ceremony will be to stem the tide of evil threatening democracy and life on this planet at the hands of people who take or retain their positions of power and responsibility starting January 20th, 2025.

I am taking my ceremonial inspiration from the work of two strong women.

The first strong woman is Deborah Blake; noted author & witch. She writes books for Llewellyn Publications as the Everyday Witch. She also writes enthralling, poignant, often funny, fiction. One of her series of fiction books centers around the tales of the Baba Yaga. 

Wickedly Unraveled* is a book in that series with a very strong spell that I adapted for my ceremony.

The second strong woman is Julie Brook who does 'land and tidal art'; specifically her 'Firestacks'.

Julie Brook builds what she calls firestacks, which are essentially cairns, starting at low tide, using the 'dry-stone walling method' to be 5.75 feet high & 6.5 feet wide so they will not go down easily when the tide comes in high. 

Next she builds a fire in the firestack with seasoned logs. She & others replenish the fire with more logs every half hour or so.

The tide washes in and the fire in the firestack is beautiful against the sea & the sky. 

For the website Terrain.org in an article titled: Prose, Photography and Landscape Art by Julie Brook - she said:

"When the sea was quiet and rising—an incremental rising you felt creeping up your body— the tension between fire and water became a form of choreography: of time, of sound, of light—an exquisite dance between the water rising and receding, the fire dousing and regaining itself."

I think that's what we have to do over the next 2 or 4 years. We  have to keep dancing even if the fire seems to go completely out. 

And rest in the knowledge that the tide - a force of the true apex predator - Mother Earth - will wash all evidence of those who would attack her out to sea - so much unremembered sand on the ocean floor. Good riddance.

(I don't have permission to use Julie Brook's work BUT I URGE YOU SERIOUSLY to click on the Terrain.org article & look at the pictures & view the very powerful 15 minute video. Mesmerizing.)

So that's how I will be spending a small part of my equinoxes, solstices, full moons & new moons in the coming year. 

After that - maybe something with an Earth focus, or water, or air.

Always with love & light. 

*The Baba Yaga series:

Wickedly Dangerous, Wickedly Wonderful, Wickedly Powerful

Dangerously Charming, Dangerously Divine, Dangerously Fierce

Wickedly Unraveled

Silent Time Rolling In

 Definition:

Discourse - written or oral communication of ideas between people.

I think I am done with this for a while.

Done with the back & forth of it.

I might put up a blog now & then. 

Something breezy.  

Someone criticized a writer that I love as part of a community that talks about reading all the time & I was hit with depression & exhaustion & I didn't have it in me to defend her as I normally do.

Time to be silent whenever possible.

Rolling In Again - Roger Street Friedman

Road Trip Ahead

 ARE WE THERE YET?

No we haven't even left. We are leaving late this afternoon. For a 13+ hour road trip. Me, my daughter and our dog Cooper. At the end of the trip is my daughter Ruthie & her family & my mom.

Eager to see them.

We are going to take my mom to a family reunion in Lexington, KY. Which is also where Liz & I are planning to move to. So - we will be checking it out.

Catch you on the flip side!

Taylor Swift's cover of Send Me On My Way

Rusted Root's original Send Me On My Way

Hedonic Treadmill: Coffee

 

What is the Hedonic Treadmill theory?

According to Wikipedia it is "the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes".

You might say coffee has little to do with major anything. Well, maybe not but it has been a major pursuit in my life for sometime now. The perfect cup of coffee is ever elusive. I think I have it just right but then a couple of cups later it appears something is not good enough. Back to the drawing board.

The drawing board has taken me through: Keurig, French Press, Expresso machine, & my pretty red stovetop expresso maker:

I've also gone through various grinds & many add ins. Half & half? Evaporated milk? Oat or almond milk? Sugar? Sweetener? Monk fruit?

What I finally came back to? Drip coffee is so much easier & just as good. You set it up the night before, click a button in the morning & voila...coffee. Also - for now I went back to powdered non-dairy creamer because I'm tired of the stuff in my throat from so much dairy. 

I'm sticking with my Monk Fruit over sugar or sweetener, though. It's all natural. It tastes good. And it helps keep blood sugar levels balanced.

So - I have returned to my roots as far as happy coffee is concerned. It definitely wasn't a quick return, though.

Black Coffee In Bed by Squeeze

PS - there are two theories of happiness: hedonic - experiences of pleasure & enjoyment & eudaimonic - experiences of meaning & purpose. Coffee would fall into hedonic happiness for me.

The non-writing life

 Lately I am not writing. Maybe I'll get back to it one day. Who knows.

For now I am focusing my efforts on getting my place ready to sell because we want to move out of Florida which gets more expensive - and bizarre - to live in everyday.

Here we should have some of the best produce in the world. But someone has been messing with the migrant workers until there is no one to pick crops. So you go to the grocery store & the produce isn't from  here. Tomatoes are woody - limes are hard rocks - lemons cost a fortune. You get the picture.

The process of buying & selling homes is stressful. I am learning. I just don't want to end up in an unaffordable, unsustainable situation. 

So what is giving me joy these days?

The community of commenters on Jenny Crusie's blogpost - arghink.com

Playing throw the bone with my granddog Cooper.

Anticipation of going to see my family end of September.

I think I've spoken on this blog before about watching the youtube channel of the couple in Azerbaijan - countrylife vlog. Now I have discovered a Sri Lankan youtube channel called Traditional Me & it is also good.

Listening to Taylor Swift.

And last but not least - 

Hope!!!

 

Luminous Longevity Amongst the Campbells

 Longevity vs Long Life

Longevity is being healthy and active until the day you die quickly and peacefully.

Long Life is living a long time even confined to a bed.

     In a recent amusing text thread amongst me, my mom & my aunties - I volunteered to put together a list of documentaries / shows about longevity. Below is that list.

     Skippable amusing auto correction story: I kept using 'centarians' instead of 'centenarians' which auto correct kept changing to 'centurions' which somehow led to us trying to decide if Aunt Mary would make a better 'centarian' or 'centurion'. 

NETFLIX

Live To 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones*

1 season with 4 episodes

Each episode visits a different Blue Zone.

*Blue Zones are regions of the world where people tend to live longer and where there are larger concentrations of centenarians (people who live to be 100 years old or more).

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC – usually through Disney+

Limitless With Chris Helmsworth

1season with 6 episodes

Each episodes addresses thing which affect longevity

1 stress 2 shock 3 fasting 4 strength 5 memory 6 acceptance

In each episode Chris is learning / doing things to minimize the affects of these things on his longevity. The 6^th episode features his wife & is very sweet.

Another good reason to watch Limitless With Chris Helmsworth

TUBI**

The Longevity Film

Visits several Blue Zones including the one natural Blue Zone in the USA which is in Loma Linda CA. Talks about efforts to create some other Blue Zones here.

Also TUBI

How To Live Forever

Documentary about longevity. Starts out slow but gets better and is worth it to watch.

Features several interesting people; Jack LaLane @ 94, Edna Parker-the oldest woman ever, Phyllis Diller doing a stand-up routine late in life that is very funny, a 98-year-old kite flyer in Okinawa (he describes himself as a loaner which is almost unheard of in longevity circles where community is considered high on the list of things necessary)

There is also a bittersweet interview with Suzanne Somers talking about her efforts at longevity where she expresses confidence that she will live to be 100. She died at 77 of breast cancer. Really it’s remarkable she lived as long as she did considering she fought cancer off and on throughout her life starting when she was in her 20’s.

     Skippable anecdote– Speaking of community as necessary to becoming a centenarian – Campbells do community like they invented it.

     Skippable funny side note – There is talk about funerals in this one. Which reminded me of something amusing about Japanese funerals. It is a sign of status to have big crowds at your funeral. In order to make that happen strippers are hired to entertain the crowds. I had a good laugh thinking about someone hiring a stripper to entertain at a funeral at Musters Funeral home. I really think someone needs to include that in their pre-planning. Any volunteers? Wouldn’t have to be a female stripper. Bonnie? Brenda?

**If you stream but don’t have TUBI – it’s free with ads. Just open it. Freevee (formerly IMBd) same

Something on Tubi I found, haven’t watched but plan to:

Older Than Ireland – said to be a documentary about 30 centenarians in Ireland.

FREEVEE

The Human Longevity Project

I haven’t seen this one but it is supposed to be 9 episodes that look really good. I will watch it if I can find it.

PBS

Series called Sages Of Aging

I don’t get PBS so I haven’t seen this one but PBS always does a good job of anything it sets out to do so probably it’s good.

NPR

Does not have any talk shows on longevity but has several articles I want to check out on NPR.org

Things that look good that I haven’t found yet:

Longevity Hackers

Aging Backwards

Human Longevity – How To Live Longer & Prosper

In How To Live Forever – Marianne Williamson says – don’t retire instead refire your life. There is a lot of movement in learning about longevity. Enough to keep one entertained well into their 100’s.

As I find more – I will send it your way.

 

I usually end a blogpost with a song but instead here is the trailer for Limitless because the eye candy is only made better by the ear candy.

 

 Note to self - read John Robbins book Health at 100 

 

Let's Talk About Text Baby

 

I have run into many delightsome words lately. Time to share!

Author Emma Jameson is the source of these words:

Lady Juliet in the Dr Bones books (I highly recommend this series) uses-

Fatuity – which means absurdity or foolishness or stupidity

Jejune (pronounced juh joon) – which means naïve or simplistic or superficial. When it’s used to describe writing it means dry & uninteresting.

Codswallop – which is a perfect word for untrue or nonsense – IMO Donald Trump is full of codswallop.

In Jameson’s series with main character Jem Jago ( This series is not my cup of tea) uses –

Quagmire – which means soft, shaky ground or a difficult, precarious or entrapping position or predicament. Very appropriate sounding word.

 

One of my favorite authors of all time – Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) always gives me new or heretofore unexplored words.

Miasma – 1 an unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor 2 an oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere surrounding or emanating from something

For example – when I opened the door upon returning home from school and a miasma of fish smell wafted out to me – I knew – it was salmon cakes for supper night. Yuck.

Denouement – I so love this word. Pronounced day noo mawn 1 final part of a narrative when the strands of the plot are drawn together and all the stories are explained or resolved 2 climax of a chain of events when something is decided or made clear

For example – The denouement of the third season of Bridgerton was all I hoped it would be.

Maelstrom – 1 a powerful whirlpool in a sea or river 2 – a situation of confused movement or violent turmoil

For example – I entered a maelstrom of people attempting to leave when the Taylor Swift concert ended.

 

Speaking of Ms Swift – she uses a word in the lyrics for her song - Karma – that is very satisfying –

Opacity – which can mean lacking transparency or translucence or opaqueness – it also can mean obscurity of meaning

Taylor Swift - Karma (a great song to sing along to in your car)