If I Only Had a Blog

diving in to the pool

there's a sensation i got during our last spiritual spa and then, again, last night. it's the feeling of diving into a nice, refreshing, pool of cool water. it's not hot water. it's not freezing water. its just the right temperature.

i got this feeling while reading Living in the Light by Shakti Gawain. it's all about intuition, how it works, how to develop it and what one might go through while they are learning to live by it.  i felt so alive while reading the book that i made a mid-evening dash to target to get pretty notecards so i could keep my favorite selections at hand.

here's one just to whet your appetite:

"The intuitive mind, on the other hand, seems to have access to an infinite supply of information.  It appears to be able to tap into a deep storehouse of knowledge and wisdom -- the universal mind. It is also able to sort out this information and supply us with exactly what we need, when we need it.  Though the message may come through a bit at a time, if we learn to follow this supply of information piece by piece, the necessary course of action will be revealed.  As we learn to rely on this guidance, life takes on a flowing, effortless quality.  Our life, feelings, and actions interweave harmoniously with those of others around us."

seven things in seven days

its probably been a week since my last blog post. so i thought i'd give seven updates.

1. mostly i've been playing scramble this week. i'm not very good at it. but, i am a little hooked.

2. i'm savoring what i consider to be a very special time when my bff and i live on the same continent.

3. i have two crushes.

4. i have about two billion fears.

5. time with my bff is teaching me quite a bit about love. its not a heavy feeling at all. its light and freeing and just is.

6.  i bought a new phone and am a little enamored of it.

7. i want to pursue a career in publishing.

creative cuisine on a budget

due to current financial restraints i have challenged myself to spend the next few days eating meals that only consist of items found in my kitchen.  so far, the results have been quite satisfying.  they make me wonder why i insist on eating out most days.

thursday morning i woke up and made myself a pan of eggplant and zucchini baked in diced tomatoes. that meal lasted a couple of days.

today for dinner i made baked portobello mushroom caps with scallops.  the scallops were flavored with some hot mayo. it was supposed to be japanese mayo with chili sauce, but i didn't have that in my kitchen. so i improvised with common american mayo and hot sauce.  it was yummy, but i'd like to see what would happen with the right ingredients.

tomorrow i'll make a boiled spinach and pasta dish.

the stakes will be raised when i get around to using that boring ground turkey that is in my freezer right now.  and i'd like to find something to do with all the chickpeas and spinach i have here.

props, though, should go to the fabulous internet. all i have to do is type a list of ingredients into my google toolbar and oila, recipes galore. in fact, here i go now, "chickpeas and spinach..."

notes on the opening of the olympics

i watched the opening of the olympics with two wonderful women; one who is in her 30s and another who is in her 80s. each of us was touched by the event in our own unique ways. one of us said "yes," to every mention of anything that happened in world war two or the cold war. another was touched by the artistry of the interplay of movement and visual art. i was touched by the cinematic nature of the scroll as it rolled out in the center of the stadium for the first time.  i think we were all touched by the "parade" of nations, the coming together of the whole world for the same event.

the story that moved me the most was the first time lichtenstein participated in the games and found that their flag was the same as haiti's. having never had occassion to meet in the same venue, the two countries were surprised by their similarity. lichtenstein proceeded to add another element to their flag for distinction. nevertheless the idea of two countries, two peoples having their first encounter touched me.  i love stories of cultural first encounters.

what i thought along the way...

i did pilates today. and i've seen a marked improvement in my abilities. however 16 repetitions of certain ab-strengthening moves started to get difficult. i just kept saying, "but tomorrow, your body will feel SO good." i think tomorrow i will actually be burning throughout my mid-section... in fact i'm part of the way to the burn now. but, by tomorrow there will also be the satisfaction of knowing i did a little work for that burn.

after all this time...

kari still loves the city. she can't help it. there are certain corners, certain streets, under certain streetlamps that just make her a little giddy. 

a blessing

"In some respects woman is superior to man. She is more tender-hearted, more receptive, her intuition is more intense."  (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 161)

in reference to my last posting, in sum, i feel blessed to have spent the weekend with women who prove the above statement to be true. i don't mean to be man-hating here... i just couldn't find a quote where this is worded any differently.

anyway, intuition and receptivity abounded in my apartment on saturday night. how refreshing to be so well-understood. i had a conversation with one woman where i was describing some dreams i've had recently. without any other context, her interpretation of my dream was so profound and so in alignment with my current life, i was astounded. then, i told her about a second dream and though the idea i received in that dream might be considered obscure to some folks, she didn't need me to expound on the idea at all. she got it right away.

yay for intuition!

perfection

a new lady friend and i have a running joke that perfection and feminine spirit are one in the same. i won't tell you the whole context, but it had to do with a rapid sequence of information that i relayed to her. she ended up cutting out the middle part of the sequence in her mind and the sum of what she got from me was perfection and femininity are the same thing.

anyway... i find this even more interesting after last night's event in my home. the only way i can describe the event is with the word perfection.

oh, gosh, it was perfect. i had about 15 women over for what i called a Spiritual Spa. we ate homemade vegetarian food and salads.  then each person shared a quote, song, poem, thought or item that relaxes them. there were no painting of toenails or any kind of primping, althought that would have been fine too. but the spa was to focus on our spirits and relax into them.

and really the night was perfect. during the devotional portion, i looked up and there were 15 radiant faces of varying complexions with their eyes closed and heads bowed in meditation.  and from her heart each person read a prayer or thought that gives her comfort. and really from her heart... i got a sense that people were sharing their most intimate moments with each other. not many people explained their choice and very few of the selections were from words other than the Holy Word. we spoke to each other without personal words or personal impressions... yet, how much more intimate can you get than to share with others the words you use when you approach God in times of need, discomfort or trial.

then, there were little gifts given to my house. a small rose bush. and some tidying up. i noticed a couple of the ladies busily doing something in my kitchen and figured they were just doing the dishes, which was alright by me. but, nope, later i discovered the entire kitchen was spotless AND they had also organized my utensil drawer, which i had yet to do since moving!

my bff spent the night and this morning mentioned how different my apartment felt after the event. it was already a nice place she said, but with the afterglow of prayer and feminine energy it went through its own transformation.

perfect.

saturday a.m.

it's saturday morning, about 8:30 am. i'm up and at 'em. no lingering bed for me this morning. chicago is mainly quiet right now. except for an occassional car whizzing by and someone's air conditioning unit running, the birds are actually the loudest part of the neighborhood. this kind of quiet is rare.

someone nearby is making toast. i can smell it. i also smell the garbage in the dumpster below, which i've been able to smell from my back porch perch for a few days now. good thing i don't smell it inside my apartment.

i'm wondering if target is open yet and thinking it must be.

i'm also wondering about this thing people keep telling me. they're saying i have a glow, that more light is coming from me these days. now, things were pretty rough there for a while this season. and i can't say that i feel light within yet. oh, i know the light is there. if there's anything i've learned this year its that our souls are always full of light.  but, others see it coming from me and mention it without solicitation. and i'm not paying them to say it either.

this leads me to wonder about yoga. i've been doing yoga lately. and the person i know who glows the most is a yoga instructor. i mean she just radiates all the time.  any chance there is a correlation?  i don't know. not all yoga instructors glow.  but i know two who do. and as i said, the most glowing person i know is a yoga instructor.

girl time is excellent

so today i was lying on the couch getting my eyebrows done. yes, literally, i was lying on a couch, as i can't afford a salon style waxing right now so a friend agreed to help me out. and by the way, she did a fabulous job.

anyway, i'm quite tickled by the whole experience. since we were tweazing it took about an hour, which gave us quite a bit of time to chat. so, this friend is in the new category, i can't say i know her well. but, first we chatted simply about eyebrows, waxing and the like. then we had sort of an uncomfortable silence. then we filled it with more chatting about recent happenings. 

by the end of the session i really felt like i had been lying on a different kind of couch. i heard myself saying things that have been on my heart for some time, things i've really only written in my journal and maybe told to my absolute closest of friends. it was really important me to re-hash events of the last season out loud and to get some feedback. no names were disclosed to protect the innocent. however, it was just valuable for those words to come out into the air and for me to hear them and hear feedback.

i liked the experience. and i think no matter what i will always appreciate girl time.