The Crack Between The Worlds

I love these days, the time between festive gatherings and the new year. Of course the "new year" is a human construct, but these days feel like an invitation to pause, to step into shamanic dreaming, to feel the shape of what is to be carried forward and what is to be gently released and left behind.

I love the idea of perpetual creation, that all of this world- including us- is linked to and co-created in each moment by the Mystery that is both within and around us, by the Sacred Wholeness that is both what we are and greater than the sum of all the manifestations.

These are realities I explore in contemplation, feeling their embodiment. When I first wake up, or before I go to sleep, on the bus, or while walking through the park- I start with three deep breaths, watching the inhale, following the exhale, noticing how my attention slows my breath and makes it feel complete. And then, I let my body lead. . . . .feeling an inner and outer unfolding with each inhale . . . letting go into gravity with the exhale and then. . . . pausing at the end of the exhale. . . . dropping into stillness and waiting without straining, allowing the impulse to inhale to arise from deep within.

There, in the pause at the end of the exhale, I touch something, open to something that is always seeking to touch me: awareness of the crack between the worlds of spirit and matter that are not separate but simply two ways of seeing one wholeness that excludes nothing; the taste of an Infinite Love that welcomes and holds us all.

Perhaps in this inbetween place we can breathe and dance together, dreaming a new year of deepening love and life for ourselves, every other and the world ~Oriah (c) 2014 

Reflections in a Crystal Wind

As I reflect, especially this time of year...as the sun is just beginning its movement up from the lowest point it has achieved on the horizon...the solstice has passed, the days are getting longer...if not noticeably so yet.

Thanks to my old friend, bookend...who passed in 1966...motorcycle accident.  Too soon taken.

  

If I don't know where I'm going

Perhaps I'll wait beside the pathway 

When no one's coming, and count the questions 

I've turned away from, or closed my eyes to

Or had no time for, or passed right over 

Because the answers would shame my pride

I've heard them say the word forever

But I don't know if words have meaning

When they are promised in fear of losing 

What can't be borrowed, or lent in blindness

Or blessed by pageantry, or sold by preachers

~Paraphrased from Richard Fariña, Reflections in a Crystal Wind

The Fog of War

This may cause a stir, but... perhaps (IMO) few remember the reason for the Cuban revolution in the first place...a few holding all the wealth, in the grips of US mobsters and corporations...Bautista, casinos. The ones who fled were largely the elite...and the criminal element. Cuba was forced into the Soviet sphere, just as Nicaragua was, due to embargoes, mining of harbors, infiltration by CIA...we create enemies instead of friends and peace...because we are ruled by mobsters wearing suits and ties, owning the banks and corporations...Cuba sends doctors to help with ebola, we send military. Cuba is mostly organic, local and cooperative as far as crops are concerned...non mechanized. Perfect, of course not...but, look in our mirror.

New Moon in Capricorn and The Solstice this Sunday

This Sunday is the new moon in Capricorn AND the Winter solstice. Energetically, it's the perfect time of the year to align with your goals for 2015. Rest is very important during this time...So, relax...breathe, breathe, breathe...exhale.

Observe the laws of nature, work in harmony with the energies of creation and you will conserve energy.

Rest and plan during the dark times when it’s difficult to do anything else.
(winter, the new moon, or nighttime.)

Plant ideas when the time is ripe for germination.
(spring, the waxing moon, or morning.)

Fertilize and bring ideas to fruition when things need nourishment.
(summer, the full moon, or daytime.)

Harvest when the fruits of your labor have finished growing.
(autumn, the waning moon, or evening.)

Then start all over again.

Conserve and Decentralize Energy

There's no free ride when it comes to generating energy. Even the cleanest sources have environmental consequences. Materials for all power-generating facilities have to be obtained and transported, and infrastructure must be built, maintained and eventually decommissioned. Wind turbines take up space and can harm wildlife. Hydro floods agricultural land and alters water cycles.

That's why conservation is the best way to reduce energy-consumption impacts. Reductions in energy use and investment in energy-efficiency technologies are so significant that the International Energy Agency refers to conservation as the "first fuel".

No matter how good we get at conserving, though, we'll always need energy, so we must find ways to employ the least damaging technologies and reduce negative effects. We know the world's preferred, and currently cheapest, method to generate power — burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas — is the most destructive, causing pollution, global warming and massive environmental damage during extraction, transport, refining and use. And supplies are becoming more difficult to obtain and will eventually run out.

With the price of photovoltaic cells down below one dollar US per watt, in many places, (and that it even works in our latitude)...it's a very good investment in your path towards sustainability. I encourage the R and D which is being done on various battery storage techniques.

Conserve...then look to alternative energy. And De-Centralize...

We learn more from mistakes we, and others, make

Before we built the straw bale in 1994 we were traveling from here to Mexico...we went on a networking tour of the 'straw bale community' along the way, including Bill and Athena Steen (who were writing the quintessential book at the time)...each one we met with and saw their works I asked "what would you do differently", which to me is more important in a way than, "what did you do right"...in that way I got to take advantage of and correct each of their mistakes in building our straw bale. I still tell people who visit here and ooo and awww to remember to ask what I'd do differently...We learn from our, and others, mistakes...more than successes sometimes.