Pink Coyote

Trampoline

Miles and Chloe, friends forever.

This has been a crazy, fun and also backbreaking week. I began with a bang having to pack those few things most meaningful to me, including Miles, the three dogs and two cats and drive up to my parents rancho to escape the raging forest fire seven miles south of our home. In the end, the smoke made it look much closer than it was, but as our dear firefighting friend said to me, "that isn't very far away". Indeed. A strange thing when you have about an hour to grab the hard drive which contains all of our precious photos, the wedding album, a few clothing items, the laptop, camera and other miscellaneous stuff one thinks she might need to protect. Nature's little test for me this week. Our little blaze is the largest burning fire in the nation and declared a national disaster at over a hundred thousand acres.

A nesting feeling is coming over me, I want to organize the house and make soup in my big cast iron dutch oven. I love this time of year. I can't wait to take Miles to the pumpkin patch.

I received some yummy mail goodies for my birthday, which is so surprising and makes me feel well-loved. I've spoken with a dear and lovely friend and connected like never before. I made glass art for the first time (pictures coming soon). I picked apples in my yard. I helped my illin' brother clean his apartment. I watched a movie with my honey. I hosted a yard sale on the windiest day of the year in my driveway. I witnessed my mom's 5 year sobriety birthday. I ate chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. I kissed the cold, pink cheeks of the sweetest boy in town.

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain." -- William Shakespeare

Blessed

My weekend was especially fun-crammed full of this beautiful creature and the man I adore.

My existence is blessed in so many ways. Here are some of them:

*I am surrounded by amazing souls, I'm convinced I have landed the best friends and family possible in the world, and there are so many! I know how lucky I am.
*I know what I LOVE to do and why I do it *and I have finally found a name for it. Wishcraft and Pathfinder have made their way to the garage sale bins after a decade and two return trips to college... *huge sigh of relief* !!
*I am engulfed in inspiration wherever I turn: aforementioned peeps, nature, yummy foods, sweet pets, divine synchronicity, spirit seekers and critical thinkers, creative tools, color....I never have to look far for my fire to be ignited.
*Each year brings amazing triumphs over obstacles, hope for true balance, weeding out of unneeded things, and strangely, simplification of almost every aspect of life.
*I can still fit into my high school cheerleading uniform. :) HA HA!
*I am finding it easier to laugh at myself. Thank heavens for this one.

How are you blessed this fine fall day?

Celebrate

Nevermind the barley and pea soup in the low right corner...Mommy and Babe read Dad's sweet card.

I am thirty-five on Saturday and we are outta here for a long weekend of lounging in a mineral hot spring on the porch of a hut near the ocean. I can't imagine anything better! A little yoga in a yurt, a bit of live jazz with dinner, a hike to the crest above the cottage; come Monday, I'll be a brand new gal.

Maybe I'll feel like I'm twenty-five...

Ha!

Have a great weekend, daughters of Zeus...

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday and I wanted to honor him here and share him with you. Here are some things you should know about him to love him:

He is extremely silly.
He takes himself too seriously sometimes and has to pause and laugh at himself.
He sometimes talks so fast that we say his mouth can't keep up with his brain.
He talks to strangers.
He is jolly.
He sits each morning before work with his socks in his hands staring into space-we call this the "Sock Trance".
He loves to walk all over the mountains.
He appears easygoing, but he also has a nervous energy about him, ants in his pants-I have this too.
He never cries.
When he gets super excited, he can't stop coughing.
He used to be a daredevil in his younger day: riding bucking horses and driving really fast.
He is a self made man: owns his own business and works very hard, indulging in few luxuries.
He talks to slot machines.
He loves his homeland of Oklahoma and would like to live there again someday.
He has a deep appreciation of the way things were in simpler times.
He loves me and our family so much.

Wellness Part One

Venus flytraps, Huntington Garden, 2006.

I laid Miles down for a nap and came downstairs, scooped out some mint and chip, dumped a bunch of milk on top, grabbed my notebook and ran into the office. I had to kick a tiny maraca out of the way in order to sit down at my desk, stepping on a cheerio once I did.
My office is a small junk antique table in a half sized bedroom (*right*) that used to contain the baby's crib. We have since moved it upstairs in our room (since he actually has to use it occasionally now), replacing the co-sleeper that he grew out of, and now I share this space with his bookshelf, dresser and supplies. I am thrilled to have a door between me and the rest of the herd! Sheesh.

Work. It is a thing I love to do. I am just beginning to reinvent what I do. Miles will be a year old in a couple of weeks and I'm anxious to simplify my work life so that my time with him is extraordinary, but that I also set aside 12 or so hours a week to pursue my enterprise. This leads me to my next thought:

I am surrounded extraordinary women eager to share their stories and skills of wellness of some kind. You are bodyworkers, feng shui-ers, health food store owners, therapists, shamanic healers, writers of motherhood and the human experience, artists with immense hearts, 12 step sponsors, yoga teachers, coaches, home organizers, nature enthusiasts, ecopsychologists, herbalists, sex therapists, child advocates, vegetarians, energy healers, retreat facilitators and so many more. You amaze me!

I want to talk about what this category of wellness represents for us. Why do we have such a strong drive to be WELL and want wellness for others?

Who are we?
What do we have in common and how do we talk about the incredible gifts that we have to offer with each other?
What holds us back and what thrusts us forward?

Spill!

Certainty

The Goddesses of VICTORY, Aug 2006.

Been a very long day. Do you know that it is after 10 pm and I have not brushed my teeth all day. Gross, huh? It began with the phone ringing off the hook and my baby's nap schedule thrown off by the extreme faldaral. Then I decided as soon as B got home that NOW was my time to seize the moment and reorganize the entire garage. I know of two preggies having boys and so I packed boxes overflowing with clothes and maternity clothes, etc to send to them, as I have been meaning to do this for months now.

I am loving a few things right now:

*ruffled bummie knickers from agent provocateur: oooh la la to the max.
*not so sexy but very supportive and neato keen providence clogs-the best.
*hobo international handbags.
*fat tire beer.
*fitting into my prepreg clothes, all but a few pairs of skinny jeans.
*annie's shells n cheese.
*thai herbs, the northern blend from mango grove with cinnamon bark and kaffir lime.
*licorice mint tea with messages from god on the paper tag.
*mrs. meyer's geranium scented dishsoap
*sparkly dishscrubbers from whole foods
*longtime friends
*strollin with my babe past the stellar's perch and bigwhitedog house
*badger medicine

"Badger's certainty is a source of strength." Jamie Sams

May you be certain in all you are...

Tooth Fairy

I wonder if he gets this frownie forehead from yours truly? He didn't get that light hair from me....

We are all aflutter here at Campbell Cottage because our eleven month, 6 day old boy is finally cutting his first tooth. Break out the champagne! Many months of on-again-off-again drooling, cranking and gnawing everything in sight has paid off. He has been foaming little bubbles today in honor of the long-awaited pearlie.

In other news, I am having a lusty affair over at Typepad-creating a little business card for the writing work that I've been cultivating. I do so wish I'd taken that graphic arts class at community college so many years ago. My experience trying to make a banner in Illustrator last night was a comedy of errors, to say the least. I'll post the link up here as soon as its shined up a bit more.

In other other news, our house in the Central Valley is nearing completion. We'll be packing it up once again and giving it another go. Fall is my very favorite time of year here in the mountains-the apples will be ready in another couple of weeks, the sunflowers are all so tall and polleny, the nesting birds are gathering twigs and yarns for their snuggly winter roosts. It goes without saying that I will dearly miss this place when I'm gone.

Tonite there is an amazing full corn moon shining overhead. She promises abundance. I want to send up a little Happy Birthday to my dear Maya, my Virgo sister, whom we lost early this year. And I want to offer up a wee prayer of fertility for my handful of girlfriends who are trying to fill their wombs up with babies and are met with challenges and loss. May this season be one of inner wealth.

Goldmine

"Loving parents should want to find out what they are unconsiously doing to their children. If they simply avoid the subject and instead point to their parental love, then they are not really concerned about their children's well-being, but rather are painstakingly trying to keep a clear conscience. This effort, which they have been making ever since they were little, prevents them from letting their love for their children unfold freely and from learning something from this love."--Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. There seems to be a fair amount of inauthentic parenting happening today. I am discouraged by parents who don't want to hear their children's stories, pains, and even rage. However, I am heartened that there are abundant resources to point people to the path to themselves. The movement toward our inner goldmines is a valuable one, as individuals and as a collective. What is does your essence look like? What are your coping mechanisms? How do you shine your light? Adults have the ability to look deeply into their well, and see who they really are. What can change? What do you think cannot be changed? What would you look like if you could find the sparkles and dark spots your parents gave you and find more of you outside of them? How can we re-nourish our inner voices, nurture that divine essence and draw it forward?

Pow Wow

Sarah Jane prepares the tipi for sacred ceremony, August 2006.

"Womankind is half of the human world, but most importantly, women are the peaceful ones, and in this new era, it is the peaceful ones who will bring ultimate harmony." --Ed McGaa, (Eagle Man), Sioux Medicine Man.