Sunday, April 28, 2013

Cleopatra


My mother gave me this book and the audio book to go along with it.  I have always been intrigued by Cleopatra as a female queen in antiquity, but I had no idea how riveted I would be by this book.

Each page is so well written, so beautiful so illuminating about a whole culture, a whole world I had no idea existed.  Stacy Schiff, the author is a brilliant, funny feminist so much of the focus of the book is taking back Cleopatra'a history from the men around her and throughout history who chose to define her through whatever their cultural lens.  Stacy allows Cleopatra and her world to speak for itself.  I have fallen in love with her descriptions of Alexandria.

"From east to west the city measured nearly four miles, a wonderland of baths, theaters, gymnasiums, courts, temples, shrines and synagogues.  A limestone wall surrounded its perimeter, punctuated by towers...During the day Alexandria echoed with the sound of porridge sellers or chickpeas vendors, street performers, soothsayers, moneylenders.  Its spice stands released exotic aromas, carried through the streets by a thick, salty breeze.  Long legged white and black ibises assembled at every intersection, foraging for crumbs.  Until well into the evening, when the vermilion sun plunged precipitously into the harbor, Alexandrian remained a swirl of reds and yellows, a swelling kaleidoscope of music, chaos, and color...At banquets those intricacies (in the floor mosaics) vanished under lush carpets of lilies and roses with which Egyptians were abundantly supplied.  "The general rule, " gushed one chronicler, "is that no flower, including roses, snowdrops, or anything else, ever completely stops blooming."  Strewn in heaps over the floors, they lent the impression of a country meadow...There was nothing rare about a banquet order for three hundred crowns of roses." P.72-73

Where was I?
I had no idea Alexandria was such a diverse and interesting place.
I want to visit.
Alas, it is under the sea.
So, I am savoring the descriptions and listening to each CD a few times.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Plum Blossoms!!

The plum tree is filling the yard with its scent and calling all the bugs in the area to come visit!!




Thursday, April 25, 2013

Faith


I am working on having faith as I step into this new healing career.
I've got the home office, the massage table and the training.
I am now a CCAP (Certified Clinical Aromatherapy Practitioner), a practioner and  trainer in both EFT and Emotrance, and have been a Reiki Master for years.
I've got all these wonderful tools to help people release crap and have more joy in their lives, all while smelling the magical and transformational extracts from healing plants.

Amazing.

I feel really lucky to be so clear that this is what I meant to do.
And the sessions I've had working with friends have been really wonderful.  I feel so happy to be doing what I am doing as I am doing it! (Which is such a relief, because sometimes something seems like a good idea, but then you actually DO it and it sucks.)

But, Rob looks worried when I talk about getting clients and making some money.
He doesn't want us to go further into debt if this is just a hobby, which I understand, so I am just trying to move forward with curiosity and optimism, even though I don't really know what to expect and how this whole new world works.
(Taxes, business plans, insurance coverage and web design are things I am learning about.)
I think it will all work out and I am trying to trust and have faith.
My dear friend (alright, fine, she's my therapist) gave me this stone the other day it was at just the perfect time.

I will take one step at a time.
Not quit my day (evening and night, actually) jobs.
And have faith that, if I trust the magic; I will receive the way in which I am meant to go.

I also know that the most basic things like:

Taking care of myself, eating well and moving my body
Enjoying and loving my family and home
Going outside
Cultivating the friendships with friends and mentors who get me

are what will keep my happy and balanced as I take each step.

Martha Beck just sent a daily email with this message that hit home.


"Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future has already entered you.
It is pulling you through life by your heart."



Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The First Warm Day!


The Plum tree is blooming!
I am so very happy it is finally warm.
We laid under the tree and soaked in the warm breezy air.
The birds were singing.
it was a really good time.




Rob tried on Lily's Coon hat and turned into some wild creature.  He has trouble posing for peaceful portraits.





Monday, April 22, 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

April vacation



April vacation is here.  Lily was home sick almost all of last week, so I've got to hold on to some particle of progress in dealing with the chaos of life.  You can see our list.  We cleaned their room laboriously day by day, throwing alot of junk out!

We also did lots of other things, like catch a spring peeper.



A big day out was our trip to Hadley, which I talked up so much that Georgia made a "map" of the day as she lay in bed the night before.

wake up
drive
Go visit Rob at UMASS and go to dining hall
TJ Max
Goodwill
Movie (The view from Poppy Hill)
Chinese food
Brush teeth
Bed


The dining hall was a big hit.  Georgia ate two pieces of lasagna.  Lily ate cereal, a hot dog and pizza.
Oh yes and soft serve ice cream with toppings.
College seems pretty cool at this point.

A walk into the reeds
with a wonderful find 
of a red eft!




Rob made a garden plan.  We used to have veggie gardens before we had children.  But now I enjoy going to our beloved Picadilly farm and having someone else grow our food and weed it.  I love his drawing though and would be game to start something.  We'll see..

Ahhh, here is some moss, It looks so soft and inviting and the maple blossoms are so bright and alive as they scatter from the trees..



Saturday, April 13, 2013

Baker Violin Shop



Blooming spring flowers greet us!  We are doing our annual pilgrimage to Baker Violin Shop in Dummerston VT.  We go to get our violins tuned up and today Lily is moving up to a 3/4 size.

The shop is so gloriously beautiful.
I love the light shining on the curvy honey-colored instruments.


These are tucked away in a glass case.




These are stringless, waiting on the chair for help.

These are the four violins Lily gets to choose from.


Testing them out and finding the perfect one.
The process was so sensitive and individual, I finally blurted out, "It's like being in Ollivander's Wand Shop.  The wand picks the wizard! The violin picks the player."  David Baker nodded and agreed, saying, "When I saw that scene in the movie, I thought, Yes! That's the only thing that describes this process."

When I am in his shop I have such a deep clarity that a violin is a sacred magical instrument that creates musical vibrations from rubbing together horsehair over metal, surrounded by wood and readied with tree sap (rosin) to vibrate in a way that moves the soul.  It'a amazing!  Some of these instruments are really ancient.

This time he adjusted my sound post, a little dowel made of Spruce wood, inside the violin.  I didn't even know it was in there!  He talked about it.  I looked it up.

"It is not without good reason that the French word for sound post is "Ame" which means soul. The sound post is indeed the "soul" of the instrument, even a slight change in position of a couple of millimetres can alter the quality of the tone"


Here Georgia is rummaging through his desk and collecting mutes, metal attachments to put on the strings so you can practice and not wake up a sleeping household.  Everything in his studio is beautiful and useful art.




Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Lily at the bus stop

Chipper for so early in the morning!.  She's such a cool 5th grader.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Bug with bow


Made by Georgia at the creation station at school.  I love its little smile.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Hometown visit


The girls and I went to spend the weekend with my parents while I went to an "M" technique training class.  Lily made this beautiful snowflake and spent some quality time in her pj's.

We went for a walk in my childhood field and listened to the peepers as the sun set.  I kept thinking it would be warm outside, but it never was!




Such a sweet photo of Lily next to a photo of herself as a sweet baby.

Friday, April 5, 2013

cookie fort

Georgia made a fort and Cookie found her way inside, even using Georgia's shirt as a pillow.  Goofy dog.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Really Cool Link!

This is from the Facebook page
I fucking love Science
Have you seen it?
It is so beautiful, shocking and funny
It's actually made me enjoy checking my facebook page!
Here are two of her many gorgeous posts.
https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience



She posted a link last week to a site where you can slide back and forth to fathom the sizes of things inthe universe.  So very cool!  Check it out below.

http://htwins.net/scale2/

Monday, April 1, 2013

Magical Healing Mantra

http://youtu.be/TDUdT5z_CBU

Om Mani Padme Hum

It's over 9 minutes and sort of cuts off weirdly, but I love it. I can't stop listening to it!
It's calming but also enlivening.