Check This Out

In case you haven't noticed, I like Mistress Matisse's poly stories and also like to offer a link so you can go and read them for yourselves. Here's one from Saturday called Just Another (Nice) Day.


And a silly Youtube video mocking polyamory. It's called Polly Wally.

Check This Out--The Ravenhearts

Check out this article published by Nerve, the premier online magazine about sex, relationships and pop culture:

Husbands and Wives by Meghan Daum.

This is a very interesting article about the Ravenhearts, an old time polyamorous family who live in Northern California. Enjoy.

28 days and Alex Gray

28 days till the man burns!

And more Alex Gray for James.
















The artist himself. This is a visionary painting--pre 911. Within the painting are the twin towers, an airplane flying towards them, and a George Bush looking character cavorting with a terrorist looking character.

Bamboo Mandala

Dome Star Mandala

Black Rock City Post Office. Yes, it's true. Black Rock City has an official post office for the one week per year that citizens reside within the city. You can both send and receive mail--the delivery people work diligently to get all the mail delivered so it's nice to offer them a cold drink after they have gone out of their way to track you down. We also have our very own naked postman.

Alex Grey--ARTMind: The Healing Power of Sacred Art.

Check This Out

Check out Mistress Mastisse's post on Wednesday August 1, 2007. I find what she wrote on jealous and secondary relationships very insightful. Matisse answers five questions that a woman named Hannah presented to her. Here is question number two:

2. Those who identify as poly know it's not an easy path, though you often make it seem so. What personal challenges do you still face as a poly person - what issues or situations still give you trouble?

I really appreciate Matisse's life experience on so many poly issues. She has a lot of wisdom to share.

29 days!

I don't know how I counted wrong originally but I did. As of today, the man burns in 29 days!

A Hard Day

Wednesday August 1st was a damn hard day for me. I first recognized and acknowledged that I wasn't handling my emotions well when I was in the fabric store buying sewing machine needles. I wasn't sure if I had picked the right ones so I asked one of the employees who was walking down the aisle if she could help me. She refused and hurried off to her more important business leaving me alone with my abandonment issues. I could have started crying but instead I headed to the checkout and purchased the needles from a very pleasant cashier. Driving out of the parking lot in my car, I was overwhelmed with sadness and I cried over all the meanness in the world. Why is it so hard for us to just be nice to one another?
My granddaughter turned three years old today. Jerry and I flew to Hawaii to help when she was born. She was born outside, overlooking the ocean and a black sand beach, in a tub of warm water that held both her mother and father. That night a hurricane hit the island. She is fireball, a Leo girl child. Her father is my son, another fire sign, an Aries. Her and her mother came to live with us for a year when she was six months old. Her parents are going through a divorce and I'm very sad over everything that is transpiring. A lot has been under pressure with this situation and it's affecting our whole family. The ordeal just smacked me in the gut today. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

My mother is probably going to have to be moved into assisted care. I don't think my daughter and I can handle her care on our own much longer. She has Alzheimer's and gets very anxious and depressed. She is having a very difficult time walking even though there is really nothing physically wrong with her. She has this very pathetic whiny victim part of her personality which was in control today. Unfortunately, today I didn't possess and over abundance of loving kindness and compassion. She phoned early this morning waking me from a sound sleep, needing me because she was sick. I talked with her awhile and told her I would be over soon and then laid in bed for another half hour unwilling to heed her beck and call. When I arrived she was sitting in her apartment which was hot and stuffy even though it was early in the morning. It was cooler outside than inside and a little breeze was blowing. I left the front door open to let the breeze blow in and then I opened her drapes to let some light in. I gave her her medicine and a kiss and laid down on the couch and closed my eyes. I was feeling resistant towards her, sitting there in her chair looking so pathetic. I didn't believe she was really sick, only needy for attention and I was feeling tired and not very giving. She was annoyed that I left her door open because it made her feel exposed. I got up and shut the door and opened the sliding glass door. Then I did her dishes and made her some breakfast. She eat and said she felt better. She just wanted attention, connection, love. I was feeling more loving by the time I left. Soon she was calling me again very distressed. She had a hard day. So did I.

But this evening Jerry took me to see Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen. They are a hot rockin New Orleans Funk Bank. Man did those guys have soul! We had a nice dinner at the Sierra Nevada Big Room, shared a table with friends, heard some great music, and danced a bunch too.

It lightened my spirits. Ah, the healing power of music.

Enlightenment Intensives and Burningman--It's The Human Connection

As my preparations for Burningman intensify I'm reconnecting with my experience last year as a virgin burner. I'm also simultaneously preparing for my first Enlightenment Intensive (EI) as a monitor next week. I've written about my first Enlightenment Intensive here, which occurred in April 2005. Since that time, I've participated in a total of seven EIs along with a ten day master's training course. You can read more about these experiences by clicking on the label The Road to Enlightenment in the sidebar. Burningman and my experience of the Enlightenment Intensives are very similar in many ways. The most precious thing they have in common for me is the opportunity for intimate connection with others. I plan to continue participation in both for some time.

I have some teachers who call themselves Abraham. I was introduced to Abraham's teachings maybe ten years ago. Abraham uses the term "blended being" which refers to the human condition as being both physical and non-physical. I love this term and ever since I first heard it used I've taken it on to describe my beingness. I've taken on awareness of my blended beingness as a daily meditation practice.

I've always been a very spiritually focused person and most certainly I'm interested in Enlightenment--simply put, I'm interested in knowing the truth of who and what I am and who and what another is. I intend to directly experience this truth and to be open to this experience at all times.

I'm not so interested in becoming enlightened so I can break free of the physical world. After all, I was once free of the physical world and I assume I'll return to full on non-physical beingness at some point. But I came here to experience the physical and as far as I can ascertain, I'm not close to being finished exploring. I'm enjoying this adventure immensely. Frankly, I don't quite get the point of taking on a physical form to simply recover from my amnesia, remember who I really am and then get the heck out of Dodge. All said and done though, it doesn't seem to behoove one well, whilst taking advantage of this human condition, to forget one's true nature. My experience thus far has lead me to the insight that I fare much better in creating the specific type of life that I prefer when I'm living in Truth. So my current plan is that while I'm focused on living within this physical form to the fullest, I'm also intent on carrying on in a more enlightened, awake and aware state--that of a blended being. That's utilizing the best of both worlds, yes?

Anyway, this excerpt from Francis Weller's upcoming book, Unforgotten Wisdom: Reclaiming Our Indigenous Soul (that I found on the Wisdom Bridge Website), really speaks to my blended being as well as my Burningman experience.

What is the experience of embodiment? What awareness is necessary to know our incarnation? Sensing, feeling, responding, interacting with the world as participant, seamless intimacy. We are not apart from the world, prisoners in an internal landscape; we are members in good standing with this breathing, animate earth. What the indigenous soul knows, and so eloquently recognizes, is our kinship with clouds and wind, sunlight filtered through oak and Douglas Fir, birdsong drifting over the day, ants moving along railings and stone, comfrey blooming and self-heal offering its blue stalk to our eyes while Barber’s Adagio for Strings plays in the background. How can we feel so empty when the world is so full? Our emptiness is our failure to be in the world. Every piece of conditioning—religious, social, economic, political, educational—that places us outside this abundance, empties us.
We are bereft of the fullness in great part because what we know as alive, has been turned cold, objectified for study, researched as resource, but where soul was to be found, where love was to be felt, we only encountered abstraction.

That just touches me. Isn't it lovely?

I adore the experiences of embodiment at Burningman. There is Lap Dancing and Pole Dancing.










Buddha is all over the playa.









There is a zendo.


Altars galore.















Shadow dancing up the yin yang.







The man burns in 35 days!