Welcome back!

I think Kermit nailed it when he sang “It isn’t easy being green.” It isn’t. It requires conscientiousness. I love this wonderful earth of ours and I’ve always been drawn to things natural. On top of that, I’m kind of a farmer at heart. And I think there’s some part inside me that resonates with frugality. My grandparents were immigrants - one set from Italy, one set from Germany. They were working-class people to whom wasting things and filthiness were anathema. Neither set would appreciate our throw-away society today.

One of my sisters told me once that she thought I could feed 30 people from one bone. I’m a frugal cook. And I’m kind of lazy, so making the steps I take to keep my house and garden looking good are each one efficient.

And then there’s earth/eco friendly. I am so grateful for the earth I live on. It’s abundance, lushness, beauty and power are awe inspiring to me and I do nothing which takes away from that. I recycle bottles and cans. Hey, the guy at the recycle site has warmed up to me now and actually smiles! Very eco friendly. I don’t have great dirt to grow things in up here in the mountains. All we’ve got is pulverized granite and it doesn’t have nutrients or absorbency. So I recycle my kitchen scraps into four garden beds I built and with the help of my local stables and about $40.00 worth of compost worms, we’re all working on growing me some new dirt for next spring’s plantings.

I look for stuff for my garden beds wherever I go - Sister Mary Greensearch, I call myself. My step mom lives on a golf course in Palm Springs and they had a dumptruck full of grass clippings they were going to throw away. Egads! I always carry black garbage bags with me and was able to gather up four of them that day. What a haul. I spotted a broken down bale of hay while driving in the country one evening — another grand haul. And now my oak trees are participating. One tree’s “shed” is another girl’s layer for her compost.

I’m happy with my contributions to Green Blog Day. How about you? What do you do that’s eco-friendly?

I didn’t need to use a seatbelt extender on the return trip from Cabo! This is a reason to celebrate!

In the helter-skelter existence called Pat’s life lately, I had an island of sighs this past weekend and I’d like to share it with you.

Keith Salmon and Edith Stein presented their Songs the Body Knows workshop. Frankly folks, I’m an unfoldment junkie. If I think it’s going to teach me something about life, I am there! When I got the email from a therapist with whom I’d done anger work, I never got beyond the first paragraph. My soul KNEW this was for me.

And then the fires happened. All I wanted to do was lay on my own bed under an afghan and veg last weekend….and there was that siren-song from the workshop. Of course, I went. My intuition served me so well yet again.

The environment was serene. A native American type altar was in the center of the room. We gathered around the altar to listen, to watch, to learn. I was enthralled when Keith burst forth into his first poem, aka lesson. Each poem that either he or Edith served us was timely and on point from a practical perspective; artistically, they were breathtaking….and in some cases, breath-giving!

The workshop taught me that sound, touch and dance are ways to get active in the process of unsticking stuck spots in my body. I won’t tell you all the details. I will encourage you to look at their site and consider taking the workshop. Lots of bang for very few bucks.

One thing I do want to share is my great good fortune at the end of our time together. My name was chosen to be Receiver. I got to lay on/BE the altar at the end, and the other participants sang, danced and touched lucky me. It was one of the most profound experiences of my life. I felt completely loved, totally alive, enormously benefited, soft, receptive, perfect. And it didn’t matter one tinker’s damn what I weighed as I experienced all that.

I believe that The World of Within can help to prepare you for such receptivity in your life. If you’re not already on our ezine list, please do that so you don’t miss out on any of the good stuff.

UPDATE: The book beta-reading is making progress. I found a new beta-reader in one of my weekend workshop’s participants, and she might be just the one to push this project right into the printer’s hands. My shopping cart is next on the list to be built. We ought to be up and running before year’s end.

Love,
Pat