Quickest Remembering

At times nostalgia still overwhelms me. It sinks so deep into my bones I must question whether any movement at all is worth the trouble of experiencing more life that could potentially be reflected upon with this piercing nostalgia.

I don’t remember this trait from my previous self. Perhaps I absorbed the capacity for this intensity of remembrance from spending so much time with you. How come looking back, it’s so easy to remember the good times. Was I then, at those moments, choosing to bask in the happiness I had found myself in, instead of preparing myself for a secure future of, happiness, at risk of missing out on the present sun showers?

We melded into one at times. Everyone around us could see it. Strangers on the streets of towns we visited would shout out to us. They could see that spirit dancing in between our two bodies. We didn’t understand it yet. We were young. So we tossed golden sun drops on their lawns before skipping town.

I don’t understand the dancing spirit above, but in Northern California, there was no questioning the intense connection our roots had. Below the gray ground we traveled on, our roots twisting together, sharing space and nutrients.

There were moments of extreme bliss; extreme knowingness. There were surges of extreme fear, terror and rapid questioning of truth. All of these emotions, revolving between us, as the final connections were made, confirming the directions of our spirit, and/or life paths.

The closer our spirits and roots intertwined, the stronger our connection felt. But the stronger the connection between spirit and root became, the more distant our bodies and minds became.

What an outrages experience indeed. When that final connection is made, two directions can be the result. Insanity and / or the God state. This is because our existence is reliant on that dance between – and +. Once the final connection is made, the energy jumps to the opposite, which at this point is extreme repulsion.

But still, there remains all this space, space and motion between our prior and current beings. Will eventually enough road be traveled for me to overwrite this nostalgia with new memories?

Have you ever had to decide? Have you ever had to cut off?

Feels like 2

When it is this cold outside, your perspectives change, in regards to space and comfort. Big spaces are fun to move around in, and put stuff in, and stretch around in, but they are hard to heat. I mean really, what kind of insulation job is going to hold up to “feels like 2” degree temperatures?

Space heaters are a heat lover’s best friend, yet there are negative side effects, such as, never wanting to move away from said space heater, as well as dry itchy skin, eyes, high electric bill, etc.

Big spaces are cold, still and empty. All surfaces are chilling to the touch. I can’t help but imagine the migratory lifestyle.

I get up to dance, to get the blood moving, be my own heater. Dance to reggae music dance. Oh but the blood is frozen solid.

Overwhelmed

o-ver-whelm
1. To surge over and submerge; engulf
2.
a. To defeat completely and decisively: I have been overwhelmed by influence.
b. To affect deeply in mind or emotion: I am overwhelmed from influence.

Obama Day

It was Obama’s big day. I got up feeling great on the cold but sunny morning in Hungry Hallow. I had big plans to get up early, bike across town, and leisurely collect my ingredients roaming through the co-op. I got the props for being hardcore, riding the bike in January. It is a different way to ride when most of the road is a good 3 to 4 inches of slippery packed snow. Some guy in a fancy white jeep looking thing yelled at me as I slid through the streets nearing downtown. I couldn’t tell what he was saying. I was a little paranoid he might follow me and run me off the road and beat me down with a stick. He was probably just jealous because I was having more fun on my bike. I’m setting of the bike snob meter.

So after the co-op it was off to my friend Yammie’s to bake in honor of the new President. An hour and a half later, we had a giant cake of Nellie’s famous experimental survival food in the shape of a guitar, just in time to walk up the road to the Carnegie building, our community center to watch things like this grand inaugural speech. It is quite amazing. Obama has the flair that can get even the laziest mind interested in participating and serving our communities. Both sides of the fence have to agree, this is good.

To continue the celebration of a crisp sunny inaugural day, it was off for a skiing adventure.

A fox prances lazily across the iced-over bay. It’s a new land he has never seen before; a frozen tundra. He puts his ear to this new ground, listening for mice; the water beneath, splish splashing, below varying inches of ice-cover. “It’s a pretty sound” he thinks, “but not mice.”

He picks his head up and stands in a perky position facing the Petoskey direction. He stands there absorbing the bright afternoon sunset. Everything is covered in white, making a sunny day like today, one of the most bright brightnesses ever to be experienced. He relaxes and walks along his chosen tundra territory, sniffing at the cracks where the ice pushes together. He puts his head again to the ground, listening for mice,

“It’s a pretty sound,” he thinks, “but not mice.”

New Era

Today is a super exciting day, as well are the next few days. It’s Monday, January 19, 2009, the day before Obama’s Inauguration. Change.org thinks this is the beginning of a new era of civic engagement. I hope so. It is exciting. Think of how much participation could happen with the use of the internet!

Right now the sun is early in it’s winter sky. This is what 9pm in the summer looks like, except for more green, less white. It’s cold outside and many have to choose between groceries or paying the heating bill. But people are still excited! It really does feel like a new era.

I am giving away a Nellie Eve "Twice Daily Until Spring" CD to the first person who can tell me what is in the crotch of this tree. When someone guesses it I will post the close-up picture of this.

Aspen Grove

Cauldron Brewing...

Skiied a quick loop out in Aspen Grove. Learned about herbal brewing. Tasted some amazing flavors, medicinal, wild, natural. Yum. The book recommended for reading, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation.

Also visited the Charlevoix Public Library and began reading fascinating stories about the early days this land has seen. Isn’t this an awesome bear with a map on it? Woooh!



The Layers Show
Pink Cap, $10, Walgreens Seattle WA
Striped long hoodie, $25, Peebles, Petoskey MI
Green Gator tee shirt, $2.50, Goldmine, Petoskey
Danskin Black zip up turtle neck, $2, Goodwill, Petoskey
No label black zip up fleece hoodie, $2.50, Goldmine Petoskey
Long Brown Wool sweater, $2.50
Brown & Pink Hooded Vest, $25, K-mart, Seattle
Brown Hooded Downish Jacket, $30, K-mart, Petoskey
Black Tights, K-mart
White wool long underwear, somewhere out there
Black Soccer sock leggings, Free from previous incarnation
Black Fleece Pants, K-mart
Maggie’s Organic Wool Socks, gifted, thanks Lee!
Plaid Snow Pants from Target, Chicago
X-C Ski boots,

Skiing in the woods, fresh powder, amazing trails, and huddling around a propane heater and good people, in a shed/ kitchen, sampling witches brew and making it home before dark….Priceless.

Places to Cross Country Ski

Notes from Wednesday Pub Night, Satellite Location.

We were chickens eating beet soup and no, we did not ski in the negative 6 degree temperatures, as tempting as it was...

Places to ski before the snow melts….

Chandlers
The Gorge
The Dunes
Aspen Grove
North Country Trail – Harmon Rd to Slashing
North Country Trail - Stutsmanville
Black Mountain
Mackinac Island
Shingle Mill
Green Timbers (crust cruisin’)

Please make comments if you have ever been to these places and want to let others know of the greatness. Make the appropriate comment if you don't want to let others to know about the greatness.

PS Cindy, thanks for having such nice handwriting and spelling skills!

MINORML

This past weekend I ventured downstate for the Winter Quarter Michigan NORML meeting.

Two organizations which have branched off of MINORML are MIHEMP (Michigan Industrial Hemp Education and Marketing Project)and Michigan Medical Marijuana Association. If you’d like to learn more about hemp and it’s relation to the history and development of the United States, I recommend reading chapter four of THIS book by Jack Herer.

Merino Wool Socks

It’s been a busy weekend. I’ve soaked up a lot of information, entertainment and inspiration. All the while, I’ve been testing out some new socks. Over the Christmas time holidays, I received awesome items to keep me warm through the rest of the winter. Thanks to loving family and friends, I can now retire some holy socks to their next incarnation as wrist warmers.

I now own six pairs of brand new merino wool socks, one pair of lavender colored fuzzy house slippers and a pair of pink Burton mittens, with pockets in them!

With a few exceptions, pretty much the only socks I’ve worn in the last three years are Maggie’s Organic Cotton socks, and Smartwool socks. Before discovering these two awesome makes of socks, I often had really uncomfortable feet. I think this is because my body in general does not respond well to synthetic materials. I’m not an excessively sweaty person, but put me in synthetics and I’m bound to get sticky, stinky and irritable all over very quickly. My body is saying, “yuck, don’t put that shit one me.”

I fell in love with merino wool socks.

Merino wool socks are great for travelers. If your feet do not get too funky, you can wear one pair for a few days before washing! Just turn them inside out to let them air out during the night time and with just one pair, you’ll be good to go for a few days! They are SO great!

So far, since this past gift giving season, I have tested out two pairs of Maggie’s Organic Wool Socks, and two pairs of SmartWool’s. Honestly, all four pairs get a SUPER A+ in my book. I totally love them all. They give your feet a soft and cozy hideaway and keep them the perfect temperature and moisture level. These socks are the next best thing to being barefoot, you don’t event feel like you have socks on because you never get bothered by them. It sucks when socks are always falling down. These all stay up and in place really well. They hug your feet in all the right places.

Some are slightly thicker like Maggie’s Olive colored Killington Mountain Hiker, (selling like hotcakes!) but I could even imagine keeping these in my summer wardrobe rotation (especially with all this global weirding.) Merino wool socks are always the grand finale to any of my stellar multi layered outfits.

So I was thankful to be wearing these thicker wool socks when I traveled through traffic and high snowdrifts to get to the Winter Quarter, Michigan NORML meeting. It's an exciting time if you are keeping up with the fact the the "counter culture" is now, "the culture."

It was an exciting trip downstate but when the snow melted off my boots while I was sitting through the meeting, I was glad to have my super socks on. They kept me feeling warm an cozy in my traveliv’ homey’s (Which are my cheap pink boots that are NOT holding up so well!).

Merino wool socks are a great gift anytime of year! And if I needed any more, (which I don’t really, 6 pair last so long I won’t have to do laundry as often!)

[[!!But watch out if you are buying for a vegan extreme // I'm a relaxed vegan when it come to wool, used leather and honey. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages in my book, but think before you buy for an extreme vegan or animal rights folk!!]]

I would totally recommend Maggie’s Functional Organics since they are a company here in Michigan providing an outstanding wool sock product! Yumm. My feet get happy just thinking about them, mmm mmm mmm to merino wool socks!

Wildwood

I made the escape from town to visit some old apple orchards in Wildwood. The conditions were frozen making each movement through the trails less than stealth. Our skis made scrapidee-scrape sounds in the icy tracks with each slide forward. I would stop and shout ahead to my friend, inquiring, “Are your skis being just as loud as mine?”

Kutchhuh, sckutchhuh……

The day was gray, as the days tend to be from now until May. I would attempt to reduce the noise from my movement by skating through the powdered ice, as opposed to the packed groomed iced trail. My ski’s through this powdered ice sounded like pouches of glass beads being tossed across a round table. My brain filtered through bartering strategies. These ice crystals won’t last through the spring, but their current sound is invaluable.

The path we took was through an old logging forest. The first 50% was mostly up hill. Halfway through our journey, we stopped at the top and ate organic chocolate in the frosty air. We stood still, finally resting our ears from all the scrapidee-scrape sounds. We stood still, silently juggling mittens, water bottle and pocket food. We stood still and listened to the comforting tranquility of the wilderness in Wildwood. A pair of field hawks casually flew through the frozen grassland we had just climbed out of. I watched their silhouette pass behind the trees we stood amongst. They flew swift but relaxed as if arrival to their destination was guaranteed to be ahead of schedule. They chatted carelessly with each other. I listened in awe to their enchanting gulck-gulck sounds.

The Layers Show

Pink Hat, $10, Walgreen’s Seattle
Black striped turtleneck, $6, K-mart, P-town
Yellow Woolie, $2.00, Sal Arm, Hungry Hollow
Pink Burton Mittens, Gifted, (Thanks Dad & Barbara!)
Pink n’ Brown Vest, under $30, K-mart, Sea-town
Black Tights, $9, K-mart, P-town
Snow Pants, Gifted (Thanks Mom!)
X-Country ski’s, poles & boots, borrowed, (Thanks Mom!)
Maggie’s Organic Cotton Socks, gifted (Thanks Mom!)
Old Soccer socks turned leg warmers, 50 cents, Resaling in Harbor
Ankle high Smartwool socks thin from wear, $9, Moosejaw Chi-town

Getting out, breathing fresh air…priceless.

Rain Boots

Rain Boots; memories that have no recorded images dancing in-between light refractions. These rain boots exist only in the sketches of the following words…

I am thankful for the trees. The free newspapers come from trees.

Early October, it was the beginning of rainy season. I was urban camping out of a van on a journey up the west coast. I was heading the wrong direction; all the birds in migration south could confirm this fact to you.

Recently in the South West, a week or so in L.A; it was my third or fourth day in the San Francisco Bay area. The first night was spent in Golden Gate Park. The next two nights we migrate to the east bay. We camped on Telegraph, a block from the bustling shops on Shattuck Ave in Berkeley.

Living out of a van with no electricity and not much leg room, in-between vegan meal preparation and yoga classes, my friend and I would often cruise the streets and window shop. We stumbled into a shoe store with big 50% off sales advertised in the front windows. The weather had been pleasant so far throughout my entire journey, but the gray sky’s of autumn were creeping in. The pair of bright yellow rain boots, with green and red plaid stripe print, was very tempting.

I like to keep my collection of items to the minimum. At first it was very easy to pass up these hot, but bulky rain boots. That night, it rained. Coming home to the van after walking through the rain that night made me realize, my summer shoe accessories kit, consisting of a pair of Reef flip flops and gold colored imitation Crocks, were just not going to cut it, for the weather to come.

That night, as we parked in the shadow of Berkeley Tree Sitters, I gave thanks to the tree gods and I crumpled free newspapers, shoving them into my soggy crocks for drying.

The next morning, again gray skys, my motivation for life was fading with the passing of summer. I decided to treat myself to a major house improvement purchase. My feet were my foundation, upon which all the rest of me resides.

The yellow rain boots were a temporary spirit lifting acquisition as well as a path to extreme internal introspection. Throughout the next few weeks, as precipitation became more persistent, it was becoming clearer to me that my summer of urban camping was lying closer to the road of “lifestyle” than temporary “vacation.”

I lived out of those yellow boots. I splashed through puddles, exploring city street ways and counting my blessings. At night I would stuff my yellow rain boots with dry newspaper. In the morning I would have a dry vessel for my feet, if I was lucky enough to scrounge up a semi clean pair of dry socks.

Feet are so precious. They ground us to the earth. They carry us through our day. They let us travel and choose our own way.

It rained and rained as we ventured north, out of California towards the Pacific Northwest. Fog steamed from pools of water while we weaved through crests of varying elevation. In the darkness of night, we pulled over near Redding. I wrote a song on my banjo about vehicles that tended to stall in wet weather conditions. Blessed were we in our trusty way of transportation. Dirt road, big trees; the sound of rain pitter-pattered on the steal roof and lulled us to sleep.

The Layers Show

Pink Hat, $10 Walgreen’s Seattle
Brown Fleece Scarf, detachable piece from brown K-Mart coat
White Cotton Thermal, cheap, some resale shop escaping memory
Brown Harvest Gathering 2008 Tee, $5, Harvest Gathering Lake City MI
Pink & Brown fake fur vest, under $30, K-mart Seattle.

Warm dry feet and being able to find comfort in the rooting process………priceless.

Freedom To Be

The Layers Show

Pick Seattle Hat, $10 Seattle Walgreen’s
Haircut, Gifted, (Thanks Richard G.)
Turquoise Necklace, Gifted from AZ, (Thanks Dad)
Striped Hoodie, $2.50, Goldmine, P-town
Pink Leopard Print PJ Top, Christmas Present (Thanks Mom)
Flannel PJ Dress, (Thanks Mom)
Black Banana Republic Wool Pants, $2.50, Goldmine, P-town
Pink Longies, $1.00
Smartwool Socks, Christmas Present (Thanks Dad and Barbara)

Freedom to be me…….priceless.

Focus

What do you hold in focus? What do you chase after or reach towards?

I have a million projects I’d like to narrow down to a number more manageable.

Trees are magical. Fertility is mysterious. Snow is cold yet crystal-ous. My fingerprints are unique, yet not exclusively printed.

You are rough as this bark.
I am smooth as this green.
We are tough as these ages we have lived through and seen.

Escape to the blur
Behind where I focus
Only in time will this air choose to choke us.

Betula Alleghaniensis

Yellow Birch!

This is me hugging a yellow birch tree on the first of January 2009 in the McCune Nature Preserve. Yellow Birch trees like to live near flood planes, unlike the white birch who live high up, safe, over looking water ways. This yellow birch is sad, perhaps even diseased. I enter the year of 2009 diseased, ready for healing. Perspective is so powerful.

I started two worm farms fresh this oh nine. They are busily making fresh, fertile new soil. There is much to grow for. May you grow strong, trustworthy and beautiful this ohhh nine. Oh yeah!

The Layers Show

Pink Seattle Hat, Walgreens, Downtown Seattle, $10
Brown Eskimo Jacket, K-Mart, P-town, $40
Pink Leopard Print PJ top, K-Mark, Christmas Present
Black Turtle Neck, Goldmine, P-town, $2.50
Black Banana Republic Wool Pants, Goldmine, $2.50
Pink Thermal Longies, $1.00
Glad Rags, Oh yeah! GT, Petoskey
Black Mittens, Thanks Mateo’s Cousin!

A new year………so…so priceless.

Happy New Year

Wow. It’s a new year. May it be a great one for all!