Maebius Musings

Forgive the somewhat cliche and lengthy title, but it sums up my mood today (monday).

This weekend, we took the long five hour+ journey to PA to help out a friend and get some things done that needed done. It involved shopping, and sawing, and such, but was not overly strenuous in terms of physical chores.  Still, there was much productivity and Things Got Done(tm).

The amazing thing about the whole weekend, was the transformation that overcame our family (or at least my wife and I) over the course of it.  Lately, things have been a bit grey and mundane.  We dealt with a death in the family, a relative’s unrelated auto accident, and one of those every project at work deadlines Today times that crop up.  The fact I had to miss my herb class made the weekend seem initially like just another Chore.
(no insult intended to those we visited, we still were going to come regardless. *grin*)

In reality, with such an unexpectedly relaxed atmosphere, and high productivity, it felt like this was a weekend quite well spent!  The trip down was made in record time, so much so that I am almost convinced that my joking comment about “taking the moon roads” (a ley-line shortcut) was partially correct.

The shopping resulted in new shoes that make walking comfortable, and thus firming the foundations of my family.   We ate tasty food that nourished our bodies as well as my heart (huevos rancheros = divinity on a plate!).   I played at the park and watched my usually shy son wander right up and get himself involved with both a pick-up Baseball game, and a Soccer match!

It was one of those weekends that just worked. Things went right, the sun shone unseasonably bright and warm, and a myriad of magical minutiae happened.

Even the ride home, usually long and arduous, was filled with the three of us howling at the moon when it peeked from the clouds, interspersed with an unusually chatty kid who put away his video game to play “alphabet games”.  I’m sure any bystanders seeing a family of 3 driving slowly with faces suddenly stretched upwards to the window in a long Awwrroooooo, would think we were nuts.   But we had fun, darn it.

The root beer?   A tasty treat from Trader Joes, to ease parched throats along the ride. Nothing less, but perchance more.  It was magic potion faerie root elixir if the kid is to be believed.

I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation!

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There comes a time in everyone’s life when we must step back, take account of our situation, and endeavor to improve it. It’s a natural human way of thinking, to continually challenge and improve ourselves.

Such thoughts brought humanity from the fire-lit caves of ancient times to walking on the moon (and deforestation and pollution, but I’ll discount that aspect for this post).

And so, tonight I will take up my bookbag, hoist a notebook and pen, and step forward into the frightening realm of Academia once more.   I hope you’ll join me later this weekend, as I regale you with tales of higher learning, wrenched from the inner sanctums of Herkimer Community College.

…

Or, more accurately, I signed up for 4 non-credit courses at the nearby college, taught by someone I know and have on my blogroll!

Tonight is the class “Local and Bioregional Herbal Remedies“,  followed by “Herbs of Children and Family” on Oct 22nd,  the exciting “Preparations and Kitchen Herbs” in November, and finally one in December that does not appear to be updated on the site yet. 

I havn’t been to ‘school’ for years now, so am just a wee bit nervous. Gotta get my brain in gear to do some Serious Learnin…

Still, I’ve heard the teacher is kinda hot. 

Green blessings from my yard to yours.

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I’ve seen quite a number of blog posts and undercurrents on the topic of Ancestors, whether in relation to a Spiritual practice, or simply on some secular sources talking about genetics and healthcare.   There’s a LOT to muse about here, but I’ll put one thought out quick, before I forget it and get lost in Real Life again…

There are many methods of “Ancestor worship” depending on tradition and philosophy, drawn together in quite diverse ways in the African Diaspora religions and other tribal beliefs.   The interesting thing is that my own christian and elseways upbringing never really dealt with such topics.  Old dead people (no disrespect intended as I use the term here for context and connotation)  were remembered on holdays, maybe.

I had gone through a stage where I researched my own genetic amalgams and read quite a few very detailed sources on PA Dutch hex-craft, since I was in that region for much of my youth, and had practitioners in recent generations stretching back even further.   Still, I approached it more as a scholarly matter.  I didn’t quite grasp the Sacred.

More recently, with all this Ancestor blogging going on, plus some recent experiences myself, I decided to see about taking one day a week to think about who has gone before me.   I realized, quite unexpectedly, that I already had some pretty ingrained practices in my life that were a form of ancestor worship.  I just hadn’t called them Worship, and thought of them more as ‘fond memories’.

Most pointedly, my grandfather used to carry around a coin, and that I have been doing the same thing almost every day.  Mine’s a gold ‘Sacagawea‘ dollar and it’s showing no signs of becoming smooth yet. I also still to this day have a carved wooden man on my altar at home.   (wow, did I write “I remember” 2 years ago now?!!)  It has also become a sort of joke with my family that my winter and spring jackets are starting to fade and shred, yet I still wear them.  They were from my grandfather’s closet and I inherited them.  The thought of buying a new jacket seems almost insulting, since those still fit.

Beyond all this, one of my favorite quotes about Living Well, comes from Ms Amani (source needed) a woman I met once at Starwood 2002.  It reads “We are the Ancestors of the ones yet to be“, and has been one of the limited random quotes on the main Everthorn site since about 2003.

I’m not entirely sure on how to consider my other ancestors in other aspects of Sacred Lifestyle.  As others have mentioned, there were many who would cast me and my current belief system into the Lake of Fire.  Some genetic Ancestors may tend to shrug such efforts off as irrelevant (assuming their spirits keep the thoughts they had in life).   Yet still, I think a modicum of attention is a good thing, regardless of if it is received ‘properly.

Perhaps they all went to heaven and wouldn’t hear my thanks?  Perhaps they are still around and appreciate such thanks?   The truth is, we’ll never know, and I suppose there is no real harm in offering a few blessings and respectful energies tossed out to the unknown Ancestors.   In the worst case, it does nothing, and in the best, such energies may be accepted and returned a hundred-fold.

I think with this realization, I’ll take my coin and my charred wooden man, and my jackets, and expand the energy invested in them to include those folks I never met.   If my physics knowledge proves Energy is not created or destroyed, and merely changes form, then it is easy to follow that such energies are within us now, today.  Respecting the ancestors is, in a way, respecting ourselves, and those who we become the ancestors of.  Who wouldn’t want that in their lives?!

Thank you to my father’s family, who I know only through stories and half-remembered photographs as a child.  You made me.

Thank you to my mother’s family, who I do know, and love with all the foibles and facets of your lives. You made me.

Thank you to all the friends and family who passed on before I was born.  You made those who made me, and thus, made me in your own subtle way.

Thanks.

I hope I live up to such a Divine end-result for the next batch of worshipers after I cross over. 

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Sorry for yet another YouTube type post, but this was felt really, really important to me.

Last night, on the FOX show “So You Think You Can Dance”, which usually has lots of flashy entertaining routines, my wife and I broke down and cried.  Seriously.

The embedded video starts with a bit of lead-in to one particular routine that I believe gob-smacked everyone in the audience including the judges.  It’s one thing to say that Dance or any Art has the potential to move you, to affect your spirit, and emotions.  It’s another to see such beautiful chemistry in action.

There’s so much thought-provoking muse-worthy stuff bubbling under the surface every time I watch this (8 times now, not close to getting old), but the thing that jumps out at me the most strongly is “Abandon“.

For those suffering from disease or worry, reach out for help.  For those seeking to hide their pain inside to save the world around them, it’s OK to ask for a hug.

It’s ok to leap out across the stage, in total trust that someone will catch you.   To Embrace your power, and Abandon it all must be one of the most powerfully healing things I can imagine.

Watch the video below, and tell me you didn’t blink a few times.  It starts slower, but trust me, watch to the end of the routine.  (You can stop after the dance part if you want, the second half is the judges commentary)

http://www.examiner.com/x-12837-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m7d23-So-You-Think-you-Can-Dance-Breast-Cancer-video-with-Kate-Bush-and-Maxwell

Luckily, and thankfully, I never have had to deal personally with the topic of cancer, and may be guilty of glossing over the True Pain that such things bring to someone’s life and loved ones.   Still, that dance hurts to watch, if I think it only scratches the surface of the emotions Cancer brings, but in a strangely cathartic way.   It’s hauntingly beautiful.

I hope you agree.

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