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85, but not
Today would have been Mom’s 85th birthday. It’s been five and a half years since her body finished its life here. I’ve mourned. I’ve remembered and memorialised. I know that she is always here with me – quite literally as half of my DNA and also in the way I move, think, and express myself.…
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Empress Kristen
In my mid-30s, I had political ambitions. I didn’t like the way the world was headed. In the late 90s there was corruption and conflict and too many politicians clinging to power. Those things don’t go anywhere good. A shake-up would improve the situation. I decided that if I were elected president of the US,…
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Cedar Cone Color
Last weekend, Tod ran a fancy extension cord to the shed for me and now I have electricity. I can run the IH cooker and boil up color baths! So the first thing I did with my new electricity was to play with the cedar cones I collected a couple weeks ago. The results were…
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Well-met in Art & Nature
Saturday’s retreat was a rousing success. Four people participated in a day of creativity, nature, and enjoying one another’s company. I was delighted to meet two new faces from Tokyo and to welcome two old friends to my dining room turned classroom. Everyone got on so nicely that it was hard to interrupt the conversation…
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The Little Things
If you aren’t happy now, you might never be and I know why.* You are missing out on the pleasure of the little things in your daily life. A joyful life is a series of small events, micro-moments, little tickles of happiness brought about by acute awareness of each moment that passes. Many of us…
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Running a Retreat
After 18 months at 555, I am finally ready to open the space to the public for a Drawing Meditations retreat. Won’t you take this as a great excuse to visit? These times definitely call for some quiet and self-care. With everything going on in the world and in your life specifically, give yourself a…
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Project 2025 Bingo – Day 1
Well, here we are at the first day of our 100 day bingo game. I am finding stamp-worthy articles in the news already and the White House website lists all of the executive orders signed during the inauguration. No BINGO yet, but the card is filling up. I will continue to update this through the…
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Vigyan Bhairav Tantra No. 79
I set myself up for the weirdest meditation experience this morning. On Sunday my yoga class practices meditation. We have tried many techniques over the years – everyone has a different way of getting to their inner silence and we don’t know what will trigger an interesting insight. So we try as many as I…
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Winter colors
We had a big wind storm yesterday and this morning when I went to remove fallen branches and cedar debris from the driveway, I remembered a video of someone making color from pinecones. We have an abundance of cedar cones always blowing down on the driveway. Free color! I did a little test with some…
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3 modes of me
I seem to have three mental modes: Hyper GSD; (Anti-)Social Butterfly; and Napping Hermit. Maybe it’s how I am all the time but I notice it more when Tod isn’t here. And this week, he is in Tokyo for work. Hyper GSD Getting Shit Done. I get a lot of big, heavy, or challenging projects…
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