Tangle and Spiral - A Daily Pattern

Mandala Monday - Elemental Mandala

2011-08-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

This beautiful mandala illustrates the connection between the astral and the physical body. Rather than conceptualizing the physical world of mountains, rivers, and skin as an illusion, today's mandala suggests mind and matter can exist in harmony.

Killing Us Softly

2011-07-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

"Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality."

Goddesses Don't Stress???

2011-07-21T07:05:00.001-05:00

Demeter Mourning Persephone by
Evelyn De Morgan

Around 10:30 in an otherwise awesome yoga video Katherine Budig encourages a yogini in Utkata Konasana to "Channel your inner goddess while you're there….And then again goddess pose. Goddesses don't get stressed out. They just look good all the time. Ok. So open it up. Smile. Find that space."

I’m all for grinning and finding space in my yoga practice, but the idea that goddesses don’t get stressed out is ridiculous. Not just ridiculous. Offensive. Katherine Budig is an awesome yoga teacher. I thank both her and Yoga Journal for offering free videos and podcasts. Free yoga rocks! Trivializing goddesses does not.

Millions of men and women across the planet worship and revere goddesses. From Quan Yin to the Virgin Mary, from Shakti to Persephone, goddesses continue to inspire and empower people in very real, meaningful ways. Even outside the realm of worship, storytellers, psychologists, artists, businesswomen, and parents “channel their inner goddess” to tap into the strength and creativity that goddesses embody. And while art traditionally portrays goddesses as “looking good,” these ancient archetypes aren’t meaningful because they’re beautiful or perfect. On the contrary, goddesses inspire because their stories teach us to rise above adversity, both in smiling serenity and teeth-gnashing fury.

A statue of Sekhemet
at the Brooklyn Museum

Was Demeter stressed when her daughter disappeared into the Underworld? Most likely. Was Sekhemet worried about looking good as she rampaged across ancient Egypt punishing heretics? Hell no! Goddess stories are full of heartache and triumph. They reflect the daily struggles of women on a superhuman level. When women work with these legends, they “find that space” to feel and to act uninhibited beyond the limitations that argue femininity means being perpetually polite and polished.

Without the space to stress and sweat, goddess become archaic fashion models. They look pretty and keep their cool, but fail to inspire. They exchange their stories for lipstick smiles. Fuck that.

So next time you’re dropping beads of sweat onto the mat or sobbing in savasana, embrace your inner goddess in all her furious, luminous, tragically transcendental, bi-polar glory….and keep breathing.

I Sing The Body Eccentric

2011-07-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

Last weekend at festival I overheard a woman discussing her struggle with body image. Her complaint is a common one: feeling fat in a world that values only thinness. However, her solution struck me as brilliant. She explained that every time she walks past a mirror, she jiggles her belly. She pulls up her shirt, grabs two luscious handfuls of fat, and gives them a shake. She went on to explain that it makes her laugh, which makes her feel good, and that acknowledging her non-industry-standard body in a positive way makes her more comfortable in her skin.

Now I consider myself a curvy gal. True, I’m thinner now than I was in my immediate post-baby years. But I still have floppy tits, stretch marks, and jiggling arms. I’m making peace with that. My tits and belly both sustained my children. My arms carry heavy grocery bags and bust out some bad-ass hoop moves. So while my body may not reflect the conventional beauty standard, it’s functional. I like it. More than I have in a long time.

Like the woman at festival, I’ve found small ways to make myself comfortable with the sensual, fleshy vessel that carries me through life. I practice yoga, which makes my body stronger and more flexible. I dance. I find transcended moments in motion where mind and body are united in gestures of strength and grace. I wear revealing clothes.

There are, of course, heated debates about the politics of women’s clothing. I won’t touch on those here. However, I do hope to make a case for occasional exposing the valleys and mountains of the body to a little sunlight. In my opinion there is nothing more lovely than stripping down to short shorts and a sports bra to sprawl in the sun while my kids play in the yard. There’s nothing more sensual than hooping topless in my living room or in a swimsuit at the creek. There’s nothing more comforting than child’s pose in the nude.

Showing some skin, especially in the hot, humid Missouri summer, isn’t about sex appeal. It’s about making contact with the body as-it-is when there’s no one to impress or criticize. It’s feeling the sun, grass, breezes, and cool sheets on skin that usually hides behind clothing. The mass media bombards me with polarized body images every day. If I’m not careful to reaffirm my body and notice the beauty of women around me, it’s too easy to believe those images are both real and ideal. When I strip back my clothes and inhibitions, I strip back the layers of media-inspired misconceptions. In their absence, I find a body worthy of love.

Jew-Ish

2011-07-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

A Kansas City poetess clears up a few MissConceptions about spirituality.

View from a Hooping Plateau Part 2

2011-06-22T14:14:00.000-05:00

While time on a hooping plateau is natural, no hooper wants to linger there. After all, we hoop-dance for joy and self expression. Thus when hooping starts to feel stale or frustrating, panic often ensues. Luckily there are many paths down from the mountains and obscure trails leading upward to new vistas of possibility. Here’s a few suggestions…and counter-suggestions.

Stick to it! In role playing games characters often have to accumulate experience points before they can level up. The same concept applies to hooping. The more time you spend in the hoop, the more experience you gain. A couple dull days practicing the same old moves might be enough to level up and break into new territory.

OR

Take a break. Sometimes we need to step back and gather new resources to reinvigorate our dance. Let your hooping self rest and seek out inspiration from yoga, meditation, other forms of dance, long walks, and good friends. Remember, it’s ok to put down the hoop for a while. Your plateau may be a sign that it’s time to redirect your energy.

Refine old moves. Since hooping feels dull on a plateau, use the time for the more tedious work of polishing up old moves. Smooth out isolations. Find new poses while core hooping. Work in your reverse current. Straighten out your planes.

OR

Learn new moves. The encyclopedia of hoop-tutorials on Youtube is constantly evolving. Search out new videos and expand your hooping vocabulary. Look for advanced tricks, variations, or adapt moves from other flow-arts like poi.

Enjoy body-rocking. You might be surprised by the things you discover when you bring your hoop back to your core.

OR

Move off-body. There’s whole hooping worlds centered around isolations, tracing techniques, and mini-hooping.

Practice something that makes you giggle like foot hooping or tosses.

Reconnect to the hooping community by attending a hoop jam or workshop.

OR

Reconnect to your solitary hoop practice. Rock out in your living room. Carry your hoop to the beach. Bliss our Hoop Path style with a blindfold. Solitary practice is especially important for hoopers who spend a lot of time performing or teaching. A while back on Elephant Journal I read advice from a yoga teacher that yogis should spend 1 hour in personal practice for every 2 hours they spend teaching or following a teacher. I think the same principal applies to hoop dance.

Hoop to a favorite song.

OR

Hoop to music you don’t normally listen to. When you expand your musical horizons, you also expand your range of expression.

Mandala Monday - Word Mandalas

2011-06-20T06:00:00.009-05:00

A word-mandala brings together two techniques that C. G. Jung used to study the unconscious mind: word association and mandala drawings. Jung conceptualizes mandalas “patterns of order which, like a psychological ’view finder’ … superimposed on the psychic chaos so that each content falls into place and the weltering confusion is held together by the protective circle.” The “sacred circle” of the mandala helps the artist bring order and find patterns in the chaotic flow of the unconscious mind.

An archetypal illustration from Jung's Red Book.

Mandalas are traditionally geometric drawings, but they can also be created with words.

In Memories, Dreams, and Reflections Jung notes that during word-association sessions patients often drew blanks at certain words. The patient might instantly respond “Frisbee” to “dog,” while “cat” receives a long silence. Jung links these silences to Frued’s concept of repression, but they have positive implications too. Certain words serve as keystones for larger ideas. So if you begin with Word A, the words will connect to Word A for a while, but when another keystone word appears, the words begin to connect with it instead. If you hunt through a page of word-associations, you’ll probably pick out the ‘big ideas’, the keystones that mark the flow of thoughts. Jung called them Complexes. So while the stream of words might appear chaotic, they map out patterns similar to the circles, squares, and crosses of hand-drawn mandalas. What the mandala maps thoughts kinesthetically, word associations map linguistically.

Or you can play with both sides of the brain and create a word-mandala that combines word association and mandala drawing.

Begin with either the word-association or the mandala. But first take a moment to meditate on your central thought. I chose Shakti, the Hindu goddess who awakens love and creativity.

Create a mandala using the technique of your choice. I repeat my central thought as a mantra when I draw the dot in the center of my mandala. Keep it in mind as you create both the drawn and written portions of your mandala

After you've sketched the outline of your mandala drawing, begin a page of word association beginning with your central thought. Write slowly and mindfully. Let your mind wander freely from one word to the next.

Next, study your word-association page and begin picking out the keystone ideas. Study your drawn-mandala to get a rough idea of how many words you need and how they’ll interconnect in the drawing.

My word-association began as:

Shakti: Namaste ~ Pray ~ Play ~ Dance ~ Flow ~ Grow ~ Seeds ~ Beads ~ Tangled twine ~ Divine ~ Stars ~ Galaxy ~ Mind ~ Vibrant ~ Rainbow ~ Crescent ~ Crescendo ~ Sound ~ Profound ~ Inspiration ~ Liberation ~ Revolution ~ Rise like lions ~ Slumber ~ Surrender ~ Submerge ~ Purified ~ Sanctuary ~ January ~ Stillness ~ Center ~ Spiral ~ Dancing ~ Flame ~ Never break the chain ~ Entwine ~ Sublime ~ Mystery ~ History ~ Storyteller ~ Grandmother ~ Spider web ~ Thread ~ Blood ~ Journey ~ Descent ~ Transcend ~ Living Light ~ Illuminate ~Poetry ~ Word Hoard ~ Dragon ~ Ancient ~ Prophecy ~ Raven ~ Trickster ~ Coyote ~ Horizon ~ Shadow ~ Glimmer ~ Glitter ~ Joy ~ Whirling ~ Rumi ~ Library ~ Treasure ~

And became:
Shakti: Grow ~ Vibrant ~ Inspiration ~ Liberation ~ Sanctuary ~ Stillness ~ Center ~ Sublime ~ Transcend ~ Storyteller ~ Journey ~

Finally, begin placing keystone words inside the mandala outline. Add colors, symbols, patterns, and other decorations. I chose to add some lines of poetry, because I realized my association of lions with rebellion originated from a Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Mask of Anarchy".

Word-mandalas are amazing tools, because they challenge the creator to link the intuitive lines and shapes of a drawing with the linguistic shapes of words. Word-mandalas are thus an example of what the Kesh in Ursual K. LeGuin's Always Coming Home call hand-mind: a task whose mindful motions makes space for mental exploration.

View from a Hooping Plateau Part 1

2011-06-18T10:06:00.002-05:00

The view is breathtaking: valleys, rivers, and luminous sky. I stand in awe of the heights I’ve climbed, while gazing, inspired, at the mountains still waiting to be scaled. Below me a landscape of new friends, new skills, and blissful memories unfurl like a tapestry.

But I’d rather be somewhere else. Almost anywhere else.

I stand, grateful but impatient, on a hooping plateau.

You’ve probably reached one or will reach one some day. It’s the place in your hooping journey where everything seems a little stale. You’re comfortable with your skill-set and flow…too comfortable. Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve learned something new, and you worry you’ve reached the limits of your dance. Maybe you’ve poured your energy into the hooping community, and you feel burned out. Whatever path you’ve followed, you know you’re on a hooping plateau because all the birds are singing, “Same old. Nothing new. Same old hoola hoop.” It’s not a danceable tune.

The tricky thing about my hooping plateau is that nothing has really changed. I’m still part of a fantastic community. The crowd still crows when I bust out a pizza toss from my knees. I still adore the murmur of flames before I launch my fire hoop into motion. Nothing external exiles a hooper to a dreary plateau. It’s internal. It’s a state of mind.

Solanaceae surveys the hoop-scape.

Believe it or not. It’s a good sign.

Hooping plateaus are part of the natural ebb and flow of a dynamic hoop journey. They acknowledge accomplishment and skill. After all, I’ve worked long and hard to build the plateau’s foundation. They also promise change…if I persevere. They’re a resting space before plunging into the mountains of possibility. Like the proverbial calm before the storm, they signal a lull before a flood of new energy, inspiration, and flow.

So enjoy the view, hoop-friends. Set your hoop in the sand and meditate. Take inventory. Write a hymn in honor of the circle. Be patient, because the journey never ends.

Spin Gypsy

2011-06-14T13:28:00.001-05:00

Spin Gypsy celebrates self-discovery through dance, movement, and music. We are a collective of hoop dancers, fire spinners, flow artists, and performers who connected through the Sedalia Farmer’s Market in the summer of 2010. We host performances and workshops throughout Mid-Missouri, including a weekly spin-jam in Liberty Park.

We hope you join us in the circle!

June 17th- Randomly at the Sedalia Lion’s Club Blues & BBQ

June 18th - Spin Jam at Liberty Park, 4-7pm

June 24th - Friday Spin Jam at Sedalia Farmer’s Market, 4-7pm

June 25th - Performance with the Hulagans @ Beach Party 101 in Columbia, MO, 9-midnight

June 25th- Summer Solstice Bonfire Party in Leeton. Contact Jeluna for details.

July 2nd - Spin Jam at Liberty Park, 4-7 pm

July 4th - Fire Spinning Performance at Dresden Community Center (free food & fireworks!!!)

July 8-11th - Zenfest at Camp Gaea, Kansas.

July 16th - Spin Jam at Liberty Park, 4-7pm

July 21st - 3rd Thursday Celebration in Warrensburg. Details TBA

July 22nd - Spin Jam at Liberty Park, 4-7pm

July 30th - Friday Spin Jam at Sedalia Farmer’s Market, 4-7pm

If you're a musician or pro-spinner interested in sharing your talents, please contact Heather Hughes @ tangledmacrame@yahoo.com

Mandala Monday - Shadows and Sight

2011-06-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

In the center of this mandala by Yen Chua, the mediator dissolves into bliss. Beyond the shadow of the ego, the eyes of the mind open and reveal universal harmony.

One Tribe, Many Voices

2011-06-10T15:58:00.001-05:00

The sound extends the circle wide,
Draws the dancing souls inside,
Gathers strength, ignites the tribe,
Quickens feet and sooths the mind,
So that thoughts take flight and leap
In silent prayer or kindly greeting.

Like the rambling waters flowing,
Like leaves of trees and breezes blowing,
A current carries dust and jewels
To anoint the dirty hair of fools,
Thus all are blessed who cup their hands
To grasp and drink this moment’s wine.

If I wander drunk and dazed,

Stomping rhythms, singing praise,

The moths may fold their wings in prayer

and linger, trembling in my hair,

For I exchanged my mask for light

And mingled my voice with the song of the tribe.

The Spark of Basic Goodness

2011-06-04T10:06:00.001-05:00

Khristian Snyder Photography

You have an inclination: in the flash of one second, you feel what needs to be done. It is not a product of your education; it is not scientific or logical; you simply pick up on the message. And then you act: you just do it. That basic human quality of suddenly opening up is the best part of human instinct. You know what to do right away, on the spot—which is fantastic.

That is what we call the dot of basic goodness and unconditional instinct. You don’t think: you just feel, on the spot.

Basic trust is knowing that there is such a thing as that spark of basic goodness.

Chogyam Trungpa, The Ocean of Dharma

Mint Tea Recipe

2011-06-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

Last night I made this yummy tea with mint from my garden. It's the first time I've ever eaten something I've grown. Pure magic....and delicious.

Steep 6 mint leaves in 2 cups boiling-hot water for 1-3 minutes.
Remove leaves
Add a splash of orange juice
Add a swirl of honey.
Stir and enjoy.

"Louisa was slow and still in her movements; it took her a long time to prepare her tea; but when ready it was set forth with as much grace as if she had been a veritable guest to her own self."

-From Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun"

Grandmother's Rainbow

2011-05-31T09:51:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, on a rainy day, Grandmother Spider found the end of the rainbow. She pulled a length of twine from her pocket and quickly wrapped the rainbow's end in a half hitch sinnet. Then she began to tug. With each pull the rainbow became smaller, until it was small enough to fit into Grandmother's pocket.

Grandmother Spider carried the rainbow home. Later that night, she divided each band of color into a colorful piece of hemp. She crushed the leftovers with her pestal and rolled the shards in her palm until they were round and bright like beads. Finally she pierced each bead with a sewing needle, and slipped them onto the rainbow twine. She left the findings on her table with a teapot sitting on top. Rainbows, she knew, had a way of slipping away over night. Then she went to bed. In the morning, Grandmother Spider knotted the pieces of the rainbow into a luminous crown.

Mandala Monday - A Memorial Flower

2011-05-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

"Within every seed a flower sleeps. Within every mind lingers a dream."

I’d like to take a moment this Memorial Day to dedicate a mandala to the dreamers, laborers, parents, and soldiers who have given their lives in service. Memorial Day traditionally honors veterans, but I believe there is something equally noble in the sacrifices of everyday men and women. This mandala honors the father who surrenders his personal aspirations and works two jobs to buy his children a foothold in the American dream. This mandala celebrates the environmental activist sowing seeds in abandoned parking lots. May their spirit of generosity and perseverance inform the future of our nation. Blessed be.

Reach for the sky....wait! Not that high!

2011-05-28T08:00:00.009-05:00

For the second time this week I looked up from my garden and spotted my daughter perched high in the branches of a tree. For the second time this week I struggled between worry and pride. On one hand, all my modern parenting instincts scream, “DANGER!” On the other hand, I marvel at her bravery and her wild whims. I have never been the girl who climbs trees. I’ve always been too scared to scale the branches. Or perhaps my mother was too scared to let me scale branches, so I evolved into a creature that lingers among roots, gazing upward. The facts are lost deep in my memory.

Meanwhile, Abby grins and hurls handfuls of leaves down at her brother. I hope my daughter will grown into a young woman who dares to climb. I hope she ascends toward happiness, financial stability, and knowledge. I want her to smile down at the world and breathe the bright breezes. But those are all metaphors.

Climbing a tree is real. Climbing a tree--or rather, falling from one--can break a pre-schooler’s neck. So part of me demands that I summon her back to earth, while the other part argues that tree climbing is the cornerstone of a joyous childhood. My mind cannot convince itself either way. I wander over to the tree. I take my customary spot among the roots, gazing up with a two-part plan in mind: to share this moment with my pixie child and catch her if she falls.

From Birches by Robert Frost

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Interview: Lindsay Love

2011-05-27T07:00:00.018-05:00

The half-stated purpose of this blog is to share ideas for embracing an inspired, happy, and creative life. On my own journey I've met a host of brilliant people who create 'the good life' through their art and community service. This week's interview with Lindsay Love is the first in a series of profiles that showcase artists living their dream.

Lindsay and her inspiring daughter, Baila

Lindsay Love is also a certified children’s yoga and meditation instructor and is a member of multiple local community organizations. Lindsay is joined in her journey by her daughter and inspiration, Baila (3 years) and their dog, Bea.

When and how did you discover hoop dance?
Lindsay: I was introduced to hoop dancing in 2006, as it was becoming increasingly popular among the summer music festival scene. I was always intrigued but it wasn't until I watched Spiral's Earth Dance video in the Spring of 2008 that I felt inspired to pick up a hoop myself.

Spiral's Earthdance video is a hooping classic! What about that video changed your intrigue into inspiration?

Lindsay: Spiral wasn't just hooping, she was DANCING! I was spotting chaine turns, deep grande plies in second position, sustained spins, etc. much different than I've ever seen before.

You studied modern, ballet, and tap dance for 13 years before discovering hoop-dance. What are some of the similarities and differences between hoop-dance and more 'traditional' schools of dance?

Lindsay: Studio dance and hoop dance share many similarities in the art of expression through movement, performance and flow. In the fall of 2006, I walked away from studio dance with little inspiration and motivation remaining. With the hoop came a new challenge, less boundaries and infinite possibilities in discovering how to utilize this prop to ignite my desire to dance again. Hoop dance has allowed me to tap into my unique free flow, without direction or limitation.

How has your extensive dance background informed/impacted your hooping?

Lindsay: My background in dance has served as great preparation as I now spin in my ultimate joy in the flow arts community. I was a very shy child and am grateful to my mother and dance teacher for all they contributed to my experience in dance. That opportunity gave me confidence, built incredible self-esteem and sparked the creative fire within at a very young age. I still enjoy creating choreography, only now with props and tools (generally on fire!) and love sharing my art through performance, both of which I learned during my years in the studio.

Do you have any suggestions for hoopers who want to incorporate more dance into their spinning?

I strongly believe that the hoop has a way of finding

you and when that connection between yourself and

the hoop is recognized, you will begin experiencing

your unique flow.

Lindsay: My advice to hoopers who wish to incorporate more dance into their practice at home would be to JUST LET GO! I strongly believe that the hoop has a way of finding you and when that connection between yourself and the hoop is recognized, you will begin experiencing your unique flow. If it is technique that is desired, utilize resources such as dance tutorials on YouTube and discover the multiple ways to integrate your hoop with specific moves and combinations. Do not limit yourself as your body will intuitively guide you through your expression!

I think the freedom to just let go and dance draws many people into hooping. It's so liberating. At the same time hooping draws a lot of attention --though it may be different in Lawrence than here in rural MO. Most of its very supportive, but there's sense of being on display. How do you balance the pull of performance with the desire to just experience the dance?

Lindsay: I feel like experiencing the dance in your highest excitement is what draws people in. To see someone having fun and being playful brings a lot of smiles, my advice is to dance as if no one is watching, even if you are on display. Be in tune with yourself and it will be radiant.

That's a great way to look at it! So tell me about your yoga-practice. When and how did you discover yoga?

Lindsay: I began practicing yoga in 2006. Stretching was a huge part of my dance practice growing up but I like to refer to yoga as "conscious stretching". I began setting intention, focusing on breath and listening to my body during these stretch sessions. Deepak Chopra's "Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga" is a book that found me early on in my yoga journey. This book has accelerated my practice over the years by opening doors to healing, meditation, compassion and Love.

What styles/schools of yoga do you study?

Lindsay: The majority of my yoga practice consists of Hatha Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. Hatha Yoga includes the basic poses that contribute to flexibility and strength. Kundalini provides for a more intense spiritual connection, navigating through your chakras and finding balance within. I find Intuitive Yoga very refreshing also as it's very much like my hoop sessions--naturally flowing from pose to pose without a predetermined agenda.

What is Angel Bear Yoga?

Lindsay: Angel Bear Yoga is the curriculum used at my practice, Love~Joy~Harmony: Children's Yoga and Meditation. The program was founded by Christi Eley, a certified children's yoga instructor who wanted to make yoga more creative for children. Angel Bear Yoga teaches children to embody positive character traits through a story-based practice of poses, heart affirmations and active meditations, while discussing nature facts, endangered animals and tips on how to contribute to a healthy, sustainable environment. An overall connection to the Source, the Earth and it's creatures!

I feel that all children are born with the natural

love of the practice and hope to act as a guide for

many who wish to continue to cherish that tool

throughout their lives.

How is teaching children different than teaching adults?

Lindsay: Teaching children is my biggest joy as it is constantly a learning experience for myself! I enjoyed the opportunity teaching adults while instructing dance, but the children help me tap into my inner child and I am constantly pushing to be more creative and interactive to make a more positive, lasting impression.

How do children benefit from yoga?

Lindsay: Yoga Journal has a great article outlining the benefits of children's yoga that I have found to be very inspiring. In it, Marsha Wenig states, "Children derive enormous benefits from yoga. Physically, it enhances their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation improves. Doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them. Yoga brings that marvelous inner light that all children have to the surface." I feel that all children are born with the natural love of the practice and hope to act as a guide for many who wish to continue to cherish that tool throughout their lives.

Is yoga accessible to all children? My pre-school age son, for example, is very high-energy and easily distracted. How do you teach to a child like him?

Lindsay: Yoga is accessible to all children! Whether setting aside time to do stretches at home with mom or dad before bed time or joining a classroom setting, there is generally little to no cost involved, as yoga is something that is already within us all. Children who are high-energy and easily distracted generally benefit most from the program. Love~Joy~Harmony bases each yoga session around character traits such as Patience, Listening, Imagination and Respect, which I feel will be extremely beneficial if presented effectively. The classes are kept between 30-45 minutes (depending on the age group) and are very interactive to help motivate the children to stay involved in a fun environment.

What teaching/performance events (yoga and hoop) do you have lined up this summer?

Lindsay: I will be hosting free children's yoga workshops in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas throughout the summer and will begin teaching semester-based classes beginning in August. For information on these events as they are announced, you can visit my website or follow Love~Joy~Harmony on Facebook.I will be performing and instructing workshops as part of Helios Fire Tribe at local events in Lawrence throughout the summer, while we are also preparing our piece to perform at the annual Fringe Festival in Kansas City this July.

That's an impressive list of events, plus you also organize monthly Goddess Gatherings. What is the KCL Goddess Gathering? Are men allowed? What are your gatherings like and what sort of volunteer work do you do?

Gatherings are also intended to celebrate our

unique gift of femininity.

Lindsay: The KCL Goddess Gathering is an organization I created after acknowledging the unity among so many strong, influential and positive women in our community. It serves as an opportunity for us to unite on a monthly basis and share inspiration, bring awareness to the needs of ur community and motivate each other to continually play a part in giving back while still taking the time to nurture ourselves and our spirit. While we hope to inspire and serve everyone, regardless of gender, our Gatherings are also intended to celebrate our unique gift of femininity. Our volunteer work is open to anything that needs attention in our community--from the Boys & Girls clubs to food drives and working with other non-profit organizations to assist where they may need volunteers.

Why are gatherings like these important?

Lindsay: I feel as though gatherings such as ours act as a way to inspire and set example through action. It allows us to serve a purpose in unity and open doors for more people to become involved. Most importantly, a lot of our members are mothers. We have crafts and activities prepared for children of all ages and encourage them to take part in this supportive, productive environment at an early age.

How can folks get involved in KCL Goddess Gathering?

Lindsay: For information on the KCL Goddess Gathering, you can visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/goddessgathering or email: KCLGoddessGathering@gmail.com. All Goddesses Welcome!

Service and volunteer projects, like the KCL Goddess Gathering, are often described as dharma in the yoga-community, but you also refer to dance as your dharma. What is dharma? How does it relate to creative-work?

Lindsay: I first became aware of the term "dharma" in my yoga practice a few years ago. This refers to your purpose, your reason for being born. We all have a unique gift to contribute to our environment. I do consider dance (in all forms) to serve as my primary purpose, while continually seeking more possibilities. I have found purpose in motherhood, community involvement, serving as a mentor, being a student, etc. Dharma is often the subject of my conversations and blogs and the source of motivation for my practice as my it continues to reveal itself more and more each day.

So is dharma fixed--like everyone is born with a purpose--or is it fluid?

Lindsay: As a person, you are constantly evolving with every experience and with that, one could assume your dharma is constantly evolving as well.

How can people embrace/discover their dharma?

Lindsay: You can attempt to recognize it on a large scale (your ultimate purpose) or in the moment. We are all born to contribute talents, compassion, and ideas (just to name a few). Everyone is full of purpose, trust in yourself and focus on finding those outlets within.

How do you balance your creative and mundane (work, for example) obligations?

Lindsay: Balancing priorities and "playorities" comes with much practice and dedication. As a sole parent with my family being hours away, I am blessed to have the opportunities to be involved, as many in my situation otherwise would not. I have gained the most incredible support system over the years because of hooping and the community events I participate in. Together, we can accomplish anything and set a great example for generations to come. Behind every motivation and creation is my highest purpose, my daughter, Baila. She serves as my partner in all that I do, my teacher in life. Live in Love!

Thank you for making time between your priorities and "playorities" for this interview. You're an inspiration, Lindsay!

Lindsay: Thanks for the interview, it helped me reflect and find more gratitude in so much! Thank you!

Gardening is an Act of Faith

2011-05-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

"The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there."

~George Bernard Shaw,

The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God

Gardening is an act of faith.

Undoubtedly, gardening is also a science with two rather sprawling and well-devloped branches called horticulture and agriculture. Nonetheless, for the novice, for the hands-off hippie (that's me) who presses a handful of seeds into the soil, gardening requires faith.

When I first decided to garden, I recieved a monthy copy of Mother Earth News. They taught me about organic gardening and heirloom seeds. I priced organic potting soil and heirloom tomatoes. I ran out of money. I planted some greens and two tomato plants...then watched the weeds conquer their space.
Next year, I bought a gardening book. One of those polished, magazine-style guides with long lists of garden designs and infastructure purchases. I got scared again. I dropped a row of okra into the mud behind my shed along with a couple clusters of daisies from the Farmer's Market. They all died. Like the tomatoes. Like last year's greens.

This year, however, something amazing happened. I wandered out behind my shed and noticed wild clumps of lace-leafed plants that looked suspiciously like daisies. I took heart. I called up my friend Rose for gardening advice. After all, she grew whole bucketloads of tomatoes and cucumbers outside her duplex last year. "Teach me!" I cried. "Well," she replied, "You put some plants in the ground and they either grow or they don't." I could have kissed her lotus-annointed, garden-guru feet.

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and

freedom of the forest and the outlaw.

~Henry David Thoreau

So I tilled. I started seeds inside: zuccini, canalope, basil, and sunflowers. My neighbor gave me tomatoes. My husband took me to a plant sale where I adopted green peppers, watermelon, broccoli, herbs, and bedding flowers. I watched the zuccini flourish. I watched a dozen bright canalope seedlings wither into oblivion over night. I created a garden.

One day I hope to learn more about the science of growing things. I'd like to figure out why the canalope died. Maybe I'll Google 'canalope'. Maybe I'll study my seedling more carefully next year. In the meantime, I garden intuitively with advice from the backs of seedpackets and the green stems themselves. Because knowlege can be a guide, but it can also paralyze. Confronted with the facts, it often seems that success hinges on a host of perfect tools and techniques.

I'd rather play the Fool and step blindly, faithfully into the garden of possibility. A family of half-wild daisies lifted their faces to greet me.

A World Divided - The Commidification of Water in Bolivia

2011-05-24T08:00:00.013-05:00

Welcome guest-writer Tim Dieker. Tim is a father, fire spinner, and student of history. He's also a hermit with no website or e-mail, so leave your comments here! ;-)

From "The People United: The 1999-2000 Cochabamba “Water Wars” and Their Continuing Impact" by guest-author Tim Dieker.

Global water consumption is rising more than
twice as fast as the population explosion.

“The wars of the next century will be about water” (qtd. In Barlow 1). With those chilling words Ismail Seregeldin, Vice-President of the World Bank in 1999, offered people a glimpse into the 21st century. Water scarcity is a growing global issue, and many world leaders (both elected and otherwise) believe the answer to concerns such as these lie in the free market system, arguing that a privatized water system ensures superior conservation, higher quality and expanded service, especially in the Global South.

Water is a vital resource, and is becoming increasingly scarce. Over a billion people in the world have no access to clean water, and twice that number lack sanitation services. The majority of these people live in the global South. At the same time global water consumption is rising more than twice as fast as the population explosion (Barlow 2), while in many areas of the world, freshwater supplies are beginning to run low. Because of this, there has been a growing movement to turn water into a commodity, and move away from idea of water as a necessity to the World Bank’s conceptualization of water as an “economic good” (Grusky 15). Thus, global markets have taken an interest in water supply and distribution. Since the 1980’s, global institutions like the World Bank, along with a handful of multinational corporations, have increasingly pushed to commidify the remainder of the world’s water.

Many consumers in Cochabamba saw their water bills go
up 200-300% to prepare for the company’s arrival even
before any kind of improvements to the system.

The number of large multinationals that have leapt into the water market have enjoyed dramatic growth, as well as massive profits. In the early 1990’s the three largest private water firms worked in twelve countries, and served roughly 50 million people. By 2004, they were established in well over a hundred countries serving 300 million people (Barlow and Clark 16). Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and Vivendi, the two largest firms, are both in the top one hundred corporations in the world, and control over 2/3 of the private water market (Bakker 330). Interestingly, although conservation is often touted as a reason to privatize, most of the industry’s expansion has occurred in the global South, not in the first-world nations where most water waste occurs. Maude Barlow, author and Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of United Nations General Assembly in 2008-2009, notes “. . . a mere 12% of the world’s population uses 85% of its water, and the 12% do not live in the third world” (54). Thus privatization in the developing world addresses only a fraction of the world’s water usage and ignores waste in wealthy nations with already privatized systems.

Another oft-cited reason for privatization is that it will bring increased investment in water services to areas in need. However, most of this investment comes not from foreign companies, but from the users themselves. Prices have to rise in order to, as noted activist Vandana Shiva noted, “support a commercial operation” (Shiva 12). Or in the words of an executive for Suez, “People are to pay regarding what they consume” (qtd. in Flow: For the Love of Water), and of course, enough to make a healthy profit for the company involved.

This move proved so unpopular that residents
began what has come to be know as the "Water
Wars," a massive protest movement against
privatization.

In perhaps the worst case example of corporate mismanagement and national exploitation, the water systems of Cochabamba, Bolivia were privatized in 1999 and sold to a water consortium named Aguas del Tunari, in which American firm Bechtel held a majority stake. This move proved so unpopular that residents began what has come to be known as the “Water Wars,” a massive protest movement against privatization. The 1999-2000 “Water Wars” in Cochabamba radically altered Bolivian and, indeed, global politics.

Almost 75% of Bolivians live below the poverty line, making it the poorest of the poor nations of South America (Foshee et al. 10). In spite of this abject poverty, the World Bank, and its Director, James Wolfensohn, “. . . argued that giving public services away inevitably leads to waste, and said that countries like Bolivia need to have a ‘proper system of charging’” (Schultz 29). This was the firm, contradictory stance from organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who’ve previously said water is a common resource of the people. The World Bank’s stance that private markets were the quickest and best way to provide and expand water services was reflected in the fact that for many nations, like Bolivia, debt relief loans from the Bank and the IMF were granted on the condition that water systems be privatized. In Bolivia the Bank demanded that the systems of Cochabamba and the municipal area of El Alto/La Paz both be taken over by private industry (Bakker 330).

As a result, many consumers in Cochabamba saw their water bills go up 200-300% to prepare for the company’s arrival even before any kind of improvements to the system. For the poor, this meant often choosing between water and other necessities. Indeed, as Sara Grusky, co-director of the Globalization Challenge Initiative noted, “Although the minimum wage stood at less than $65, many of the poor had water bills of $20 or more” (19). In spite of only having access to water a couple hours a day at best, and even then with almost no pressure, the citizens of Cochabamba were paying water bills that roughly equal to water bills for a small home in some parts of the United States. Meanwhile Aguas del Tunari projected profits for the year of $58 million dollars (Barlow and Clark 17).

Ashwin Desai explains, "By telling a woman who's got nothing,"

that she must give up her "meager amount of money, what is she

going to do but go to the river and take that dirty water and die of

cholera? And then you say people don't know how to practice

hygiene. "

The contracts the government of Bolivia signed were implemented through Law #2029, passed in October of 1999. It was a law that came to represent all that was wrong with “global free trade” to the Bolivian people. Indeed, when one examines the details of the law and the contract, free trade doesn’t seem to be as big of a concern as monopolistic control of the resource. For example, Law #2029 stated that “. . . the private companies are the only ones who can distribute water. All of the autonomous water systems are handed over to them without paying anything to the people who invested in having their own systems” (Olivera 16). Meters were installed on people’s hand-dug wells, and collection agents were sent to people with cisterns and other traditional water collecting systems, ordering villagers to get a permits to collect the rainwater--now legal property of Aguas del Tunari.

Continued next Tuesday as the people of Bolivia rise up in protest...

Polypro Hoops

2011-05-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Polypro hoop from synergyfirehoops.com

When the word polypro began to wander across the Hoop City forums last year, I knew these hoops were going to be big. After all, they were promoted by Rich Porter whose name is synonymous with hoop-pioneer. Secondly, the name. If you clicked into an Etsy shop and saw listings for a HDPE hoop and a polypro hoop, which one would you look at first? I bet most folks would look at the polyPRO. Advertising repeatedly proves that names sell--especially names that suggest something desirable. Pro is positive. Pro is professional. Pro promises to transform every hooper into a bad-ass.

Polypro hoops are marketed as ‘professional hoops’ and hoops for advanced hooper. We’ve all seen jaw-dropping videos of Rich and Spiral rocking their tiny, ephemeral polypro hoops. We’ve all wondered how this potentially revolutionary tool can reshape our dance.

Well last weekend, I picked up a pair of 35” polypro twins. My regular hoop is a 36” PE (classic black) cut from ½” 125psi tubing. It is light and very springy. After an afternoon in the sun, I can feel my regular hoop squish during fast reversals.

My new polypro hoops are even lighter. They don’t give like the PE hoop during reversals. Their light weight, combined their rigidity explains why Rich Porter reports, “I’m up to 200+ shoulder reverses per/minute with my PPE hoop. This just wouldn’t have been possible with Polyethylene. At this speed you literally are pushing the physical limitations of the material.”

I can’t pull off anywhere near that many reversals, but in one week I’ve noticed a host of differences between polypro and classic hoops. Here’s the break-down:

Polypro hoops soar during tosses. They fly higher and descend slower.

Polypro hoops require precision. If your regular chest-rolls bounce a bit, expect your polypro hoop to catapult. Similarly, during chest rolls, you have to make sure the polypro hoop makes solid contact with your first forearm, or you’ll be tossing the hoop, rather than rolling it, across your chest.

Polypro hoops are fantastic for isolations. Light and responsive is key in isolation-based hooping. Plus, the current tradition is to leave polypro hoops untapped, so they reinforce the “floating bubble” illusion behind many isolations. They are, however, more difficult to keep from wobbling forward and backward out of their planes.

Polypro hoops are perfect for poi-style, off-body doubles. They’re light and they’re fast, so their perfect for poi-inspired tricks. They also make moves more accessible with larger hoops. For example, with ½” PE tubing I could only link a three-beat-weave to an under-the-shoulder toss with my 30” doubles. Bigger hoops were just to cumbersome. Now I can nail the combination with my 35” polypro doubles.
Polypro hoops are kind to sensitive wrists, ankles, and feet. I’ve gone back to working on the kick-start, because the polypro are far gentler on my ankles.
Polypro hoops love clean planes. They wobble when I’m sloppy.
Core hooping is harder with polypro hoops. The hoops are so light I miss the very kinetic experience of the hoop whirling around my body. They lack momentum, so I have to push more with less sensory feedback from the hoop. I’m still working to reclaim my sky-angle hooping.

I’m not sure if this is a recipe for bad-ass hooping….especially if you’re a body-rocker. However, I recommend polypro hoops for anyone who wants to explore poi-style and isolation-based hooping, for hoopers who need a lighter hoop to protect their wrists and feet, and for any dancer who wants to delve into a faster and more precise flow within their hoop.

Shakti Sunfire dances with a polypro fire hoop at Wanderlust 2010

Sweet Centering, Sublime Savasana

2011-05-19T17:31:00.002-05:00

Like many solitary, rural yogis, I fulfill my yoga-fix online. Other than a handful of classes at local colleges, I’ve predominantly studied asana at the feet of a digital guru. You might call me a Youtube Yogini. Most days I’m contented with my practice. Feedback would be nice, but the flexible scheduling, almost limitless choice of sequences, and absence of witnesses suit my needs perfectly. The best videos combine accessible but challenging poses in creative sequences. The instruction is clear with a focus on anatomy and transitions… with a bit of Sanskrit scattered in between.

One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that most videos cut straight to the asana sequences. When they do focus on breathing and setting an intention, I find myself distracted. I struggle to breathe naturally when someone instructs me to breathe naturally. I can’t find my center when someone asks me to find my center.

So rather than following the instructor’s centering exercises, I find my mental comfy spot before I begin the video, and then I skip ahead to the asana sequence. This simple change has deepened my practice considerably, and I hope it can deepen your practice too.

Tips for sweet centering:

Rest your hands open on your knees. Palms turn up to welcome energy. Palms turn down to ground energy.

Breathe a few rounds of Ujjayi, then ignite your lungs with a round of Kapalabhati. Breathing, ironically, is my biggest struggle in yoga. I tend to over think it, and then loose my rhythm. When I take a moment to breathe slowly, then quickly, I somehow sidestep that mental barrier. Kapalabhati just sounds, and feels, so crazy, my mind can’t help but relax.

Stretch out your neck, shoulders, hands, and feet.

Sing a mantra, chant, or healing song.

On the final round of your mantra, bring your hands, folded in prayer, to your heart. Open your eyes. Speak your intention, exhale, and begin your asana sequences.

It also helps to pause the videos occasionally. For example, I adore yogayak’s Grounding Afternoon Sequence, but that gal flies through her sun salutations. I need a minute or two to center after each salutation and I take it….with a click of the pause button.

Tips for a sublime savasana

Some videos include savasana at the end of their videos. Others encourage the viewer to take it on their own. Either way, turn off the video. If you’re impatient like me, dash into the kitchen and set the oven timer. It’s oddly liberating to sink into relaxation without having to guess when my time’s up or without listening to a digital guru breathing across the computer speakers.

If my mind’s still wild, I tame it with more singing. I know technically savasana is a self-contained pose, but I’d rather have a mindful, energetic experience than no experience at all.

The heart of yoga is a personal, moment-to-moment practice. When we rely on videos or pod casts to guide our practice, we must take time to modify them. Singing Tool in savasana may not be traditional, but it heals my mind, so I create space for the song. I create space for my own sublime experience instead of accepting a pre-packaged substitute.

Technology is the tool. The practice is individual. How do you modify your yoga? What other healing paths and sources of inspiration do you incorporate? How does your unique approach inform your practice?

Also: A wonderful take on the difference between savasana and meditation.

Welcome the divine, creative spirit of Shakti

2011-05-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

ADI SHAKTI, ADI SHAKTI, ADI SHAKTI, NAMO NAMO,

SARAB SHAKTI, SARAB SHAKTI, SARAB SHAKTI, NAMO NAMO,
PRITHUM BHAGAWATI, PRITHUM BHAGAWATI, PRITHUM BHAGAWATI,
NAMO NAMO,

KUNDALINI, MATA SHAKTI, MATA SHAKTI, NAMO, NAMO.

Another version with better vocals, but no embedding allowed.

9 Ways to Welcome Spring with Very Little Green

2011-05-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last month the gals at Hoop Dance Freak Flow shared 9 Ways to Clean-Up for the 2011 Hoop Season . The first couple suggestions included creating a rainbow hoop with left-over tape and donating beater hoops to neighborhood kids. Great ideas, for sure. Spring encourages us to unclutter, give, and breathe new life into winter's left-overs. The rest of the article, however, focused on new clothes, earrings, and hoops. While I love (and often covet) new hoop gear, the list struck me as kind of a bummer for folks in the broke-hooper camp. So here’s Tangled Macrame’s 9 Ways to Welcome Spring with Very Little Green.

1. Organize a free hoop-day in the park or find one near-by. If everyone contributes a little (snacks, hand-made prizes, ect), no one has to contribute a lot.

2. Practice tosses. There’s something sublime about a hoop hovering against blue sky.

3. Gather your hoop friends for a photo shoot.

4. Explore nearby state parks for a new space to play.

5. Hoop near or in the creek.

6. Organize a costume swap at your local hoop-jam. This might be fun before the photo-shoot!

7. Volunteer to teach hoop-dance at the Boys and Girls Club or another children’s summer program.

8. Visit your neighborhood Farmer’s Market…with hoops. Nothing refreshes the soul like fresh strawberries and hooping with Mennonite children.

9. Drink water!

Seeking "Real" Holidays

2011-05-10T09:00:00.003-05:00

Ana Jarvis

Mother's Day. Easter. Independence Day. Christmas. Every year the blog-sphere echoes with the shrill voices of pundits lamenting the loss of "real" holiday spirit. Mother's Day, they warn has been co-opted by Hallmark. Ostara is about spring, not chocolate. Christmas celebrates Christ, not Santa.

On one hand, these objections rise out of a very real fear of consumerism. Mother's Day is, after all, one of the biggest spending holidays, and the holiday's founder, Ana Jarvis was was arrested for protesting an overly commercial Mother's Day Celebration in New York.

On the other hand, the desire to protect the "real" meaning of holidays arises from the same elitism that fuel debates about the "real" meaning of words. Language purists argue that people do not "share" on Facebook because sharing traditionally/technically "implies that one as the original holder grants to another the partial use, enjoyment, or possession of a thing." Sharing a slice of pie and distributing a video link, they argue, are two very different actions. I've heard a class of English majors explode with contempt for Alanis Morissette’s "Ironic." Nothing, they howl, in that song is ironic! They measure the song by a single, literary definition of irony. Undoubtedly "Ironic" is not ironic like Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is ironic. Morissette does not the "use . . . words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning." She uses ironic like most folks use ironic in daily conversation: to describe "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result." **

Purists, defending both holidays and words, attempt to institutionalize an academic, traditional, or personal meaning at the expense of common usage. Yet if an idea isn't made "real" by every-day practice, what makes it real? Do people really want to surrender their traditions and language to an outside authority? The pundits and purists do holidays a disservice by implying that the ways well-meaning people celebrate is wrong. They characterize the loving daughter as a brain-washed, compulsive spender. They berate the chocolate bunny-eater as a heretic.

Holidays, like language, evolve. They change and grow with the people who celebrate them. Mother's Day emerges from the memories and experiences of people honoring their mothers, from a million tiny, personal traditions. Cards. Candy. Breakfast in bed. A white carnation. It's all good. It's all real.

Mary Cassatt's "Breakfast in Bed"

** Definitions from Merriam-Webster On-line

Mandala Monday - Hooping Mandala

2011-05-09T08:07:00.028-05:00

We dance round a ring and suppose,

but the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

-Robert Frost

In mandala mythology, the circle represents the universe. A single dot in the circle's center symbolizes the stillness at the heart of Creation. Hoopdance is a beautiful, moving mandala. When a hooper whirls a hoop around her body, she becomes the axis of the cosmos. The circle of the hoop forms rings that mirror the levels of consciousness that pull the dancer toward or away from the sacred center. Hooping on the core, for example, draws the circle in. Off-body passes and moves like the helicopter expand the circle to embrace the outer-world. The dancer's hands and legs form smaller circles as he whirls, steps, and dances. These mandala-patterns become tangible in LED and fire-hoop photography. The steams of light map the journey of the hoop through space and the dancer through the act of creation.

Even when not in motion, hoops create sacred space. Their circles promise protection, unity, and evolution. I hang my hoops on my wall as living works of art. Each day they form different patterns in response to my dance. The curious thing is that their design reflects what I leave behind. While my pet-hoop rests, forgotten in the yard, the remainders are a reminder of my un-danced potential. They hold, ground, and nurture the whiling energy at the heart of the dance.

Twirling round with this familiar parable

spinning, weaving round each new experience.

Recognize this as a holy gift

and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.

-Tool

John Muir, Environmentalist

2011-05-08T08:00:00.009-05:00

"The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains - mountain dwellers who have grown strong there with the forest trees in Nature's workshops." - John Muir

John Muir was born in Scotland to a harsh, orthodox father who forbid his children from reading anything but religious or practical books. Hard work, Muir's father believed, trumped childish curiosity. Nonetheless the irrepressible young Muir expanded his horizons with long rambles along the lakeside and books borrowed from friends. According to Mark R. Stoll , "Muir's intellectual horizons suddenly opened up at age fifteen when two neighbor boys with whom he was working recited to him their favorite poets--Byron, Poe, Wordsworth, Milton." Muir identified with the Romantic conceptualization of nature as a sublime reflection of humankind's moods and imagination. Years later at the University of Wisconsin, Muir discovered the American Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson. He followed Thoreau's advice to keep a journal and described traveling into the wilderness with "only a tin cup, a handful of tea, a loaf of bread, and a copy of Emerson."

Deep in the heart of the mountains that became Yosemite National Park Muir fused naturalism and theology. He wrote, "In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware." Muir saw the wilderness as a temple and believed it should be preserved for the people, not exploited for short-term profit.

Muir became a champion for wilderness preservation, writing countless articles and co-founding the Sierra Club in 1892. In 1903 Muir and Theodore Roosevelt escaped the president's entourage and spent two nights camping in the Yosemite Valley. Muir hoped to "to do some forest good in talking freely around the campfire," with the president. As a result Roosevelt signed the Yosemite Recession Bill to bring Yosemite Park under national protection along with the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Muir continued his work as an environmental advocate until his death in 1914. Today Muir is celebrated as the grandfather of the conservation movement. His work and writings are a reminder to "keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

"The Ballad of John Muir" by The Black Irish Band

Learn more:

Quotable passages by John Muir

Muir's complete works

Muir and the birth of the National Park system

John Muir National Historic Site

"John Muir in the New World", film

"Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter."

- John Muir 1924.

Beads Antique

2011-05-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Behold! The first piece of Tangled Macrame's summer collection: Beads Antique. Inspired by the crunchy, sexy sounds of Beats Antique, these tribal macramés are perfect for the dance floor. Embrace your dancing spirit with luscious copper charms and a carved tiger's eye pendant. They're yummy...I promise.

The whole set includes an anklet, necklace, armband, and earrings. They'll be available at Tangled Macramé on Monday.

Candy: a film by Chris Hughes

2011-05-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

Yes, my family is brilliant.

Beads, Hoops, and the Pursuit of Happiness

2011-05-05T20:06:00.000-05:00

Over 150 years ago Henry David Thoreau observed the frantic pace of an emerging industrial society and asked, “But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man….they are sound sleepers.” Thoreau’s America communicated via telegraph and traveled at thirty miles per hour. Yet his image holds true. Modern society is a hectic swirl of people bound to the bottoms of cars and the tops of satellite towers. The obligations of work, family, and school, joined by the incessant demands of advertising and corporate media create a disjointed lifestyle in which people struggle to find time to breathe, much less live happily.

Philosophers and writers, observing the lack of happiness in an otherwise prosperous society, offer various solutions. The exact details change from author to author, but for the most part, the solution boils down to a change in perspective. The Dalai Lama, for example, encourages readers to cultivate contentment, because “If you have a strong sense of contentment, it doesn’t matter whether you obtain the object or not; either way, you are still content” (1002). Bertrand Russell, on the other hand, reminds readers that, “The happy man is the man…whose personality is neither divided against itself nor pitted against the world. Such a man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying the spectacle that it offers” (999). Both writers encourage people to find a new perspective and to exchange a consumer-mentality for a world-view that embraces gratitude and harmony. Their advice makes sense and echoes the truth of the human heart. On a deep intuitive level most people realize wholeness and contentment lead to happiness. The challenge, however, is reconciling knowledge with living.

A stack of dog-eared self-help novels on the bottom row of my bookshelf offer mute testimony to the disjunction between what I read and how I live. Each time I delve into an insightful book I nod and think it sounds so simple. Happiness is, after all, a perspective, and I can change my perspective at will. All I need to do is induce a radical paradigm shift. Perhaps I’ll have time while I wait for the noodles to boil… In the meantime, I spend a few days reflecting on the wisdom on the Dalai Lama, but the ideas quickly drift out of my consciousness. The trouble is that while it is easy to agree with a theoretical guide to happiness, but it is far harder to incorporate a new perspective into the grind of daily life. Human beings are, for better or for worse, creatures of habit.

Therefore, for most people the path to happiness does not begin with an epiphany or a complete over-haul of their world-view. While various writers and philosophers offer true and insightful suggestions for creating a happier world-view, most people cannot make that transition in a single step. A more practical approach begins with small, concrete changes in people’s daily routines. Everyone’s situation, motivation, and passions are different, but, nonetheless, I believe hobbies are a great place to start. Hobbies create a moment of self-nurturing stillness amid the din of modern society. Hobbies connect people to their passions, foster creativity, and build communities. In short, hobbies fulfill the psychological and social needs that make people happy.

Modern Americans suffer from a chronic shortage of time. Caffeine-fueled college students and over-scheduled parents whirl through their days in a rush of endless obligations. The hours are cluttered with work, school, doctor’s appointment, meetings, and opportunities. Media exuberates the problem by promising a perpetual stream of stimuli that can be enjoyed indirectly through television or purchased with a small down-payment. Happiness drifts out of reach on the far side of a crowded to-do list. When the long anticipated weekend arrives, many people find themselves too exhausted to enjoy their hard-earned moments of relaxation. The exhausted mind often retreats back into the bright but empty satisfactions marketed by the American consumer culture.

Happiness, in the meantime, lingers in the small moments when obligation transforms into pleasure and worry dissolves into contentment. Being busy isn’t necessarily the source of unhappiness. On the contrary, productive, satisfying work creates a sense of accomplishment and competence. Discontent creeps into people’s lives when their hours are filled with time and energy consuming activities instead of activities that nurture their lives. Therefore, the path of happiness begins when people create time for pursuits that nurture their creativity and talents.

Hobbies like knitting or macramé, for example, allow a person to create something tangible and beautiful in a short amount of time. These types of hobbies can be carried into the waiting room at the doctor’s office or keep a person’s hands busy while watching television. I learned to macramé while confined to the sofa nursing a new-born child. I snuggled with my baby, and then instead of drifting off to sleep or slipping away to scrub dishes, I pulled out my bead box. My craft time became a moment of solace in otherwise hectic days. It was satisfying to create make art from a tangle of twine and a scattering of beads. The happiness of crafting arises from a deep need to bring order to the chaotic world. Macramé, like life, weaves tiny, fragmented pieces into a coherent whole. Macramé became a kind of therapy, except instead of using my mind to solve my problems, I used my hands. My world was still hectic, but I found happiness as I took the time to nurture my creativity.

While the hectic pace of modern life often cuts people off from their creative selves, it also separates them from one another. Isolation and loneliness run rampant, despite the claim that technology brings distant friends and family together. Though Facebook undoubtedly helps people reconnect with high school friends, and Skype allows families living across the country to talk to one another, people still feel lonely. Instant messaging simply can’t replace a hug. Furthermore, technology often ties people to their phones or computer rather than making real-world connections with people near by. One image stands out in my mind as the embodiment of technological isolation: four teenagers sat silently at a restaurant table with their heads bent over their cell phones.

Human beings are social creatures. Our ancestors depended on their communities for survival. Today’s safe and prosperous society makes community less of a life or death issue. However, people are still hardwired to seek out others for security and a sense of belonging. People continue to identify themselves in relation to communities. For example, a man may identify himself as a member of a local Baptist church, or a teenager may identify herself as part of the school choir. Communities also give people purpose, nurture self-esteem, and provide emotional support. These are the building blocks of happiness. Without community, people drift on a sea of solitude where happiness becomes a personal, rather than communal construction. While people undoubtedly are the final arbitrators of their state of mind, there’s truth behind the proverb that no man is an island. In times of stress, crisis, and doubt communities shelter, comfort, and heal their members. The solitary, self-reliant modern American is left alone to navigate a wilderness of troubles as lethal to happiness as any danger our ancestors faced.

Hobbies help people in their quest for happiness because hobbies create communities. Yoga classes, book clubs, and craft shows bring together people with similar interests. People share their passions and their skills, and work together to overcome challenges both in their craft and in their lives. When I took up hoop-dance, I discovered an amazing community of dancers and performers. I learned hoop dance on-line through video tutorials people posted on You-tube. After a couple months practicing in my dinning room, I worked up the courage to haul my huge, sparkling hoop to a local Earthday celebration. Much to my surprise, I was greeted by a small tribe of women hooping near the stage. They encouraged me to haul my gear over to their space where we spent the rest of the afternoon dancing, talking, and teaching each other new tricks. Now I carry my hoop with me almost everywhere and am continually blessed to meet other dancers. Though we live very different lives in very different places, we meet as members of a supportive, welcoming community. I have worked with local hoop-dancers to teach dance to children at the Boys and Girls Club and have helped raise money for an uninsured hoop-dancer battling cancer. Hoop-dance may be an unusual hobby, but it illustrates the power of hobbies to make people happy by identifying with a community and working with that community for a greater good.

John Stuart Mills argued that “Those only are happy…who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others; on the improvement of mankind, even on some art of pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end” (qtd. McMahon 9994). I didn’t begin macramé or hoop dance as part of a conscious attempt to live a happier life. I simply chose to invest my time in activities that caught my interest and brought me pleasure. That pleasure rippled outward, so that years later I look back and see the dramatic changes they made in my mood, daily life, and conceptualization of the world. My journey shows that happiness emerges organically from new habits and the soul-sustaining creativity and communities that hobbies create.

How to Be Alone

2010-08-05T08:32:00.002-05:00

What is being alone with the phone or Facebook offering perpetual connectivity? What is alone in a house full of children? For me, alone is a delicious escape into Coyote's country. If, on the other hand, you experience solitude as alien or frightening, Tanya Davis offers some advice on "How to Be Alone."

The Hooping Body

2010-08-04T09:17:00.000-05:00

Groovin Megz, founder of the Hooping Body, strives to remind hoopers that “we are athletes of the circle.” As athletes we have an obligation to strengthen and protect the bodily vessel that carries our dance. Megz has experienced first hand both the bliss and drawbacks of a life sustained by ecstatic dance. She’s rocked the stage alongside musicians like EOTO, Sphongle, Beats Antique, and Keller Williams. She’s traveled across the continent teaching and inspiring with her unique, high energy hooping. Unfortunately, for Megz, “January 2008 was a major wake-up call. My hip pain hit me like a bag of bricks... throbbing, stinging, jabbing, grinding pain in my right hip joint. I hadn't felt anything like this before.” She spent a year in search of healing. “I tried Yoga, exercise and lots of stretching but I was in so much pain nothing was tolerable. […] I tried various massage therapists and chiropractors, but no one could tell me exactly what was wrong or why I was in so much pain. I felt helpless and depressed.” Finally Megz found a personal trainer who “used several innovative techniques which relieved the pressure in my hip joint and taught me many basic exercises to strengthen my glutes and core.” Now a stronger, pain-free Megz hopes to pass her knowledge on to others.

Drawing upon her hoop dance history, as well as her training as a corrective exercise specialist, a certified personal trainer, and group exercise instructor Megz launched the Hooping Body “to educate hoopers on proper hooping practices.” If you’re in the Portland area, you can attend her weekly classes. For global hoopers, you can access useful information on her website. She’s created a questionnaire to help hoopers identify their trouble spots. Perhaps even more immediately useful are two video guides that walk hoopers through a series of strength and flexibility building exercises. However, Megz cautions there’s no substitute for working with a certified healthcare professional. Megz urges hoopers to seek out a posture assessment “to make sure they are in correct alignment before engaging in practice. Also, hoopers need to be mindful of how they feel before they hoop, if there is any particular tightness or soreness, those muscles should be stretched before and after hoop practice.”

The Hooping Body’s message is simultaneously cautionary and uplifting. Megz celebrates all that is athletic, fierce, and beautiful within the hoop, while urging hoopers to never compromise their health. With more videos in the works and dreams of taking her program on the road, the Hooping Body is an essential resource for healthy hoopers.

Macrame Hoop

2010-07-29T09:19:00.000-05:00

Last night I hit the ¼ mark of a monumental macramé project: a hemp-covered hoop! This is going to be marvelous when completed. The macramé section has amazing grip and texture. Plus is has that sun-flower seed smell of hemp twine! I’m excited to soon spin an earthy, organic hoop into the Circle.

Lighted Lifestyles Review

2010-07-27T07:42:00.000-05:00

In the winter of 2009, with my one year hooping anniversary on the horizon, I began my search for the perfect LED hoop. At the time I was spinning a friend’s Heady Hoop and was less than impressed with the quality. I’d already sent it off for repairs after the lights inexplicably died. It was also large and cumbersome with a distinctive rattle. It broke a second time around New Years. So while I’ve known folks who have happily used their kindly priced Heady Hoops for years, I needed something different. I wanted the craftsmanship promised by high-end hoop makers like PSI and Harmony, but couldn’t justify that much money. Then I remembered some spinners I met in Columbia, Missouri, that fall. “Hadn’t they told me they made LEDs?” So after asking around online, I rediscovered Lighted Lifestyles.

My Lighted Lifestyles hoop is 38” with 24 LEDs in blue, green, and UV purple. I chose solid lights, because the strobe LEDs make me really dizzy. While the purple is a little dimmer than the other lights, the hoop as a whole is very bright. It’s still heavier than a regular hoop (of course), but feels very compact. There’s no pull caused by unevenly spaced, loosely packed parts. Nor is there any distracting rattle. I love, love, love, my hoop! Kurt and Misty (who no longer works with the company) were both very helpful. They answered my questions in detail and even drove the hoop to me so I had it for the holidays. My only regret was choosing an internal switch. Over time, the frequent opening and closing wore the connector loose and it became a challenge to close the hoop completely. Once it opened at the wrong end of the connector and pulled the hoop’s “guts” out about an inch. A couple days later--9 months into the hoop’s lifespan--it died.

I was seriously disappointed. After spending over $100 on tool, I expected at LEAST a year without problems. However, Kurt immediately offered to repair the hoop and explained he’d since phased out the internal switch design because of problems like mine. In about a week my new hoop arrived in the mail. I’d scaled down to ½” tubing to reflect my growing fondness for smaller, lighter hoops. The external switch is more accessible than the original switch and is actually sunk down into the hoop so it’s flush with the outer surface. Thus no switching off or breaking mid-spin--my two original worries about external switches.

Once again I’m happily slinging multi-colored light. I’ll keep everyone updated as my remodeled hoop ages.

Spinning a friend's luminous white Lighted Lifestyles hoop at Zenfest.

Mandala Monday # 2

2010-07-26T09:36:00.000-05:00

All along the lake yesterday I saw these wonderful signs. Attention: be alert to changes in flow. They spoke, of course, of the currents along the water. However, the dancer in me read them as a reminder that the flow of creativity is a barometer of spiritual wellness parallel to the physical flow of breath and blood. Thus changes are expected, but never without cause. Like rippling water, flow can be followed back to its source, rediscovered, and purified. Blessed be the water.

Quick Wick Review

2010-07-24T16:06:00.005-05:00

I just started using a set of 5 Hoopdrum quick-wicks on my 1/2" hoop. I wanted more freedom for off-body tricks without hitting the ground, so I ordered the 5.5" length, rather than 6." It's CRAZY what a difference that makes! Having the fire just a little bit closer is super intimidating. They do, however, make a continual vertical step through possible, so I'm very pleased with the additional range of motion shorter spines offer. Now I just have to readjust to isolations with fire at my fingertips! As other reviewers have mentioned, quick-qicks very light, as well as reasonably easy to attach. The clear, step-by-step instructions helped me both attach the wicks and understand how they work. I was able to attach four of the five by myself, but needed help with one, as the ring was just a tiny bit bent and more difficult to get into place. All-in-all quick-wicks are obviously a well crafted, well design product. They're definitely a world of improvement from my bulky old fire hoop whose long, rigid spines severely limited my dance. Quick wicks have brought flow and versatility to my fire dance. I hope to use them for years to come.

Mandala Monday #1

2010-06-07T16:30:00.004-05:00

One of my summer goals is to create and share a mandala every Monday. These geometric patterns, inspired by ancient Tibetan artwork, are an act of conscious creation. They clear the mind and reaffirm cosmic order, unity, and transformation. For me personally they are meditative tools that resurface in my life when the desire to doodle momentarily prevaials over the need to write lists.

Today's digital mandala was created by Lori Beaty. According to Beaty, "Meditation on this mandala promotes clarity and ease of movement to and from different levels of consciousness. It is, in essence, a cosmograph of the path to enlightenment."

Peace of Mind

2010-06-03T20:00:00.000-05:00

Peace of mind, the student typed, drifts across my synapses like maple syrup. She stabbed the enter key twice and tried again. Peace drifts through the mind. Peace of mind drifted through my synapses like maple syrup. She read the sentences out loud, chose the last as superior, and then copied the line into a new paragraph.

Peace of mind drifted through my synapses like maple syrup, Microsoft word proclaimed objectively. She tossed second handful of words at the screen, savoring the narcissism of autobiography and the thrill of beginning. She was practical enough to realized her triumph was kinesthetic rather than intellectual. The fingertips, she reflected, are the seat of creativity.

In reality peace of mind skirted illusively through her synapses. Aaron wandered through the room strumming a guitar as she reread her paragraphs. “Am I too loud?” he asked.

“No,” she replied, “not as loud as my whispering.” She had already stopped to reread again, and then stare unfocused at the monitor. The music, like maple leaves, rattled her brain. She typed out a few lines of dialogue to reaffirm her task. Tonight she would write-- not spin circles, argue, or absorb the TV. As her rhythm returned, Aaron walked back to the porch to smoke. “I hope you don’t mind my playing.” He apologized again, brandishing both Kona and cigarette. “It’s been really inspired.”

She gnashed her lips. Did she crave inspiration or a cigarette? Rather than reply, she edited the fourth paragraph. By paragraph five, Aaron crossed into the living room without apologizing for the roar of Wii-channel propaganda. The student congratulated herself for writing my synapses. To suggest a planet’s worth of synapses experienced peace as maple syrup seemed ludicrous when confronted with Aaron’s alien habits. She imagined his peace of mind, like inspiration, streamed electric from cerebrum to tongue. She wondered if peace lingered in neurons equipped with modern conveniences. Did it shine brighter or peek longer in a mind inclined to zip, rather than drift? The maple syrup, she typed decisively, dripped slowly to the floor. Careful not to smudge the screen with her sticky fingers, the student pushed her laptop closed. She walked toward the living room. “Aaron, where can I find a towel?"

Sleepy

2010-06-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

Between May and Midsummer the world buzzes with excitement. I find myself struggling to sleep. Though my body longs for a comfy spot and pillows, my mind would rather range through long conversations and vague meditations. This time of year sleep is for the uninspired...unless you're three. Three year olds are wise enough to enjoy a nap whenever, wherever they can.

Untangling Knots

2010-05-31T20:33:00.003-05:00

As much as macramé is the art of tying knots, it’s the art of untangling them too. Carefully twisted loops and coils become necklaces, bags, and sandals, while snarls of misbegotten twine become a life metaphor. Macramé reminds me that parallel cords never tangle. They needn’t be bundled or even kept separate from one another. The longest strings can lay harmlessly side by side in what appears to be a completely chaotic mass of twine. Yet gentle tugging reveals each cord has its own path. They slide easily into the knot work.

The trouble begins when one cord wraps around itself. When I look at the source of the biggest snarls, I invariably find a tiny noose where one cord encircled itself and caught other cords in its circle. A person who’s “wrapped up in herself” enact a similarly destructive narcissism. She looses sight of others in the glamour of self. Their stories become merely an extension of her story. The naturally parallel, though still intimate and cooperative, threads are caught up in a loop of hurt feelings, ego, or fear. As more and more cords get snarled, the knot expands, until that first tiny noose is lost in the mess it created.

Yet macramé has taught me to follow the threads back to their beginning, back to the free end where change and tangles are made and unmade. All it takes is loosening that one circle to free the others. If I’m lucky, the caught cords haven’t formed their own snarls. They return easily to their original purpose. Other times, they’ve formed a whole series of interlocked nooses and tangles. Yet the most impossible knot forms when the other cords escape and the looped cord is pulled into a tight, lonely knot. Life, like a knot, needs space to uncoil. Though the circle may hold and protect, it can also entrap when I endlessly reenact my mistakes or replay my frustrations, rather than weave them into life’s knot work. Thus macramé is the art of tying and untying, repetition and innovation, tension and patience, making and unmaking, --the art of living.

Knotting Song

2010-05-29T21:09:00.004-05:00

These little songs come and go: gifts from the spirits. When I leaped--or rather hobbled--back to my bead box, I was disappointed to realize the "knotting song" had slipped my mind. I remembered a bit about seeds and beads, but the words and rhythm drifted formlessly. After all, I hadn't made macramé in over a year. Only the lull after graduation and a sprained ankle freed enough time and inspiration to string beads...and dredge my mind for weaving songs.

Happily today, as I began the long work of creating a macramé hoop, the words returned. I'm writing them down in hopes they'll linger. ~Blessed Be~

Sort and gather, searching for seeds,
Sort and gather, stringing the beads,
Sort and gather my mother’s red thread,
Tangle and spiral, both form a web.

What I make, the hands give shape.
What I break, I mend,
What I take, I give.

Hooping: The Gateway Drug

2010-05-26T11:27:00.001-05:00

The moment I started spinning my new staff, I was amazed by the parallels to hooping. Weaves, the rising sun, passes, and spins all translated into mind boggling new patterns. I’m in love…all over again. I’m experiencing all the excitement and discovery as when I first started hooping, but this time around I have a foundation of flow techniques to build on. Yet the staff has its own flow and physics. I feel so much of my hoop-style being transformed into this new tribal-ninja dance. I’m in love with the staff’s long lines and freedom of motion.

Seriously, if you’ve been considering a new prop, go for it! Not only am I completely smitten with my new toy, but my hooping is reinvigorated too. Freed from the entire weight of my prop-addiction, my recent hoop jams feel more spontaneous and inspired. So in a way my hoop has a new lover too!

I don't have any pics or videos yet, so I'll leave you with a video from Linda Farkas, a spinner who embodies grace and technical skill with a whole host of yummy flow toys.

Co-Mo Hoop Jam

2010-05-21T12:30:00.000-05:00

The Columbia Hoop Club will host an open hoop jam on Sunday, May 23 in Peace Park. Spinning starts at 3:30. Linger into evening to watch the LEDs and fire twinkle!

I'm so happy to reconnect with my riverside hoop family. Hopefully my kevlar will arrive between now and then so I can finish my fire staff!

Columbia Hoop Club - Come Together from Virtuous Luna on Vimeo.

Lullaby

2010-05-20T21:46:00.002-05:00

Twinkle, twinkle in my mind,
Tiny baubles in tangled twine,
The thread, the knot, each woven row,
A word where rippling waters flow.
As sycamores bow to greet bright breezes,
The mind will twinkle as she pleases.

-Graduation day, May 14, 2010

Bead Box Bliss @ Midwest Hoopfest

2010-05-16T15:58:00.001-05:00

Give your hips a break and learn some new knotting techniques with Tangled Macrame! Beginners will learn to make a half knot (spiral) bracelet. We’ll discuss methods for ending and tying off macramé jewelry, as well as some funky square knot variations for more experienced macramakers.

Materials will be available for everyone to make one bracelet/anklet with wood and poly-clay beads. If you have materials (beads or finished pieces) you’d like to use, share, show-off, or trade bring them along! Bring your kids too!

Midwest Hoopfest: June 25-28, French Lick Indiana
http://www.hoopcity.ca/group/midwesthoopfest
www.midwesthoopfest.com

Be there or be square! LOL!

First Burn

2009-09-12T00:33:00.003-05:00

First Burn from Heather Hughes on Vimeo.

I was still stressed from the journey to StL, but the fire whirled my worries away. I am so grateful to Willow for gifting me this beautiful hoop....and for giving me a ride to the show.

The Family Circus

2009-09-08T09:42:00.002-05:00

The Family Circus from Heather Hughes on Vimeo.

I wish this video wasn't so dark, because my husband and I really had wonderful spin-jam the evening after he lost his job. The 1st section is nanchaku. I begin hooping between minutes 2 & 3.

Level Up!

2009-08-12T21:10:00.006-05:00

**cue Legend of Zelda sound effects**
I've been playing with vortex reversals for a long time now and over the weekend I started connecting them to vertical chest hooping. When I tossed in a vertical duck-in I learned from Ziggy and ChemicalGal’s back-roll, I moved into new, unexplored territory. I love the freedom of movement born of new combinations and new modes of hooping. These are the heady days before my muscles settle comfortably into memorized patterns. Every gesture is a new opportunity.

Angled hooping has been a real challenge and I feel I’ve finally obtained that diagonally plane through breaks and barrel rolls. Instead of doing my vortex standing straight, I bring it down while bent forward. I still haven’t figured out how to pass off, but I can break the hoop and send it back up. From there it’s real easy to move into hand hooping or better yet, to duck back into the hoop, then give it a flashy roll or toss.

I know posts like this are mostly irrelevant to the reader, since you can’t see what I’m doing and hooping-language is so bulky and variable. However, I felt I needed to post something documenting my trip to Hooper’s Landing and a homage to the skills I acquired there seemed very appropriate.

Many thanks to the Scattered Stars, who inspire me with their dance and for the luminous tribe of hoop-goddesses who teach on-line! Thanks especially for Elissa who helps me feel welcomed & who posted a whole series of LED photos (including this image of me!) from Hooper's Landing.

Hooper's Landing (a love poem)

2009-08-08T08:01:00.004-05:00

The sunlight streamed brighter that day,
The leaves shimmered green in a dazzling way,
As I spun my hoop in an arc through the air,
Till it dropped with a clattered against the leg of a chair.
The girl learned forward, preparing to stand,
Dangling the hoop, like a wand, in her hand,
Then passed it back. I read in her glance,
That in motion or still we both form the dance.

Macra'maker

2009-08-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

After many days of struggling, I finally passed two cords through the tiny, irregular hole in Beth’s holy stone. Yippee! The feeling is even more blissful than nailing a new hoop trick, because the stone need only be strung once and the completed necklace is visible evidence of my accomplishment. This necklace is more than a feat of cord-squeezing, however. It is a marvel of the imagination. Ever since Salali sent me her dangly bear-pendant necklace, I’ve been in love with long, tribal jewelry.

I made my holy stone necklace intuitively, just choosing beads along a color theme and string them in clusters. The idea was to create a necklace worthy of prayer and meditation, with texture and diversity. I left space between the knots so that the beads can be regrouped and rearranged. I love it! I love Beth’s necklace even more, because I was able to take my new design and share it. What makes these patterns even more special is that she and I found our holy stones on the very same day as we each enjoyed creek stomping adventures.

The Journey

2009-07-29T23:05:00.000-05:00

I imagine the hoop as a window or a door used to jump, roll, skip, and duck into new worlds of motion and grace. Like a cosmic juggler, I whirl reality across my body, tumbling in and out of the sacred circle. Inside the hoop mind, gesture, and possibility are swirled together until they’re impossible to separate. I launch my intentions into the air, and then catch them with a spin as the hoop zooms back down to earth. I watch my friends through the hoop’s window, making a neighborhood near the place I stand.

Through the hoop I’ve discovered new worlds, valleys of fabric behind my left knee…a piece of sky perfectly framed…kingdoms of ants building towers in the dust. This galaxy is full of sound and motion as words, like light, hop from lips to spinning surfaces. I have befriended a tribe of dancing astronauts, but like any form of intergalactic travel, hooping is risky. I am challenged to anticipate the hoop’s current or frustrated by my inability to flow. Some days, prepared to step into bliss, I trip over my own feet. Like a window looking out into night, my hoop goes dark. The door becomes a mirror and my reflection blots out the sky. Some days my hoop clatters into walls, shattering my aspirations of greatness and grace. Those humbling moments put the whirling universe into perspective. I realize my own smallness in comparison to the vastness of the circle. Instead of being discouraged by the realization, I find myself oddly comforted. I am a dust mote spiraling outward. I am only beginning. Gazing out into the vastness beyond me, I glimpse a reflection of the dancer, mother, and teacher I become on my very best of days. I pick up my hoop and the journey begins again.

You Know Your A Hooper When...

2009-07-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

What defines a hooper? Skill, enthusiasm, or hours spent geeking out to hoop videos on-line? Watch for these warning signs that the hoop has spiraled into your soul.

Morning routine, "What's on hooping.org?"

Your cat sleeps in the hoop stack.

You understand why "left is the new right"

There's no furniture or light fixtures in your dining/livingroom.

You spend five minutes packing clothes and personal items for a weekend trip and 45 minutes deciding which hoops to take.

You own more than five hoops.

The back seat of your car is filled with hoops instead of people.

Half of your ipod is filled with hooping tutorials instead of music.

Whenever you see a large open area you think "Wow, great hooping space"

You choose your new car based on whether your hoops will fit or not.

You're proud of your bruises.

Invisible hoop dancing is unconsciously performed when no hoop is available.

You send a lot of time on hooping sites and communities!

You choose your outfits based on hoopability.

You have so much hoop tape that your room looks like a rainbow threw up in it.

Created by T.O.O.C with help from Amanda, Fresh Baked Cupcake, Kristen, L to the inz, Tangled Macrame, and Alicia. You can check out the original discussion and the resulting silliness at http://www.hoopcity.ca/forum/topics/you-know-you-are-a-hooper-when .

June Afternoon Hooping & Contemplation

2009-07-11T11:17:00.000-05:00

June Hoop Dance Practice from Heather Hughes on Vimeo.

I posted my June hoop dance video today and watching it, in comparison to my video from May I realized a couple of things. First, I prefer the June dance because it’s all one shot. It feels more honest and was a lot less stressful to create. Furthermore I noticed I didn’t do nearly as many tricks in the June video. Mostly I just spun the hoop around my body and over my head. The toss I tried, I dropped, the duck in/roll I tried, I dropped. So why do I like this second video so much more?

I think I see a lot more of me in the second video. The camera is a lot closer to my hooping space, so I see more of my smiles and goofy faces. My poses are kind of silly, but they’re mine, the beginning of my unique hooping style. Knowing that my hoop practice has deepened and developed a personality is like a cool, soothing breeze after many long, hot hours of practicing new tricks and techniques.

I think I’ll reward myself with a ~~cold soda~~... ~~glass of water~~... piece of chocolate!

Mountain Doom

2009-07-10T10:06:00.001-05:00

Last week (maybe it’s been 2 weeks now) I returned from camping with a queasy tummy. I wrote it off as the result of too many days sustained on beer and granola. Then I spent a day in bed, followed by a week of periodical bouts of sickness and dizziness. I updated my diagnosis to a tummy bug agitated by too many days sustained by beer and granola. By the second week I was at a loss, because I hadn’t been drinking at all: no beer, no juice, not even much water, because I felt so icky and was so busy. So I made it a point to rehydrate, but still felt terrible. Part of me knew part of the problem was the soda. I drank it anyway. Then I decided to test my hypothesis. I felt great all day at work, and then during the mid-day doldrums I downed a Mountain Dew. Not 5 minutes later my stomach was burbling and heaving. Definitely the soda. So now I keep one cold soda in the fridge, but I try not to drink it. I like knowing I have one there if I start fiend-ing for the bubbly goodness. Yesterday I didn’t drink any, so I’m pretty proud, proud enough to blog about it.

That was probably a mistake, because I really, really want a Dew right now!

Celebrating the Crone

2009-07-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

Grandmother spider, weave my soul,
unravel the tangle, make me whole,
grandmother spider, dreaming in her web,
she is the weaver, we are the thread.

Goddess Gathering at Ozark Avalon in just a couple weeks, yippee! I hope to hear back about hosting a hoop dance workshop that weekend. Either way I'm taking hoops, beads, and a song or three. Blessed be!

Breeze, a KC hoop dancer, weaves the story of Spider Woman

Competition

2009-07-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

After reading Ashton Gannon’s “Hooping Is NOT Serious Business…is it?” I spent some time contemplating competition and it place in a community. Here on Hoop City (and in the hooping community as a whole) I perceive an ideal of inclusiveness, the belief that regardless of skill we are each unique contributors to our art and our tribe.

However I can’t ignore the fact that I judge others in relation to myself. I figure most people do. The issue therefore is more complex than saying “hooping isn’t a competition,” because competition, both personal and economic, shapes and hones our community. Among professionals and craftspeople, hooping is a competition to sell hoops and earn gigs. Not only does competition divide the successful entrepreneur from the dabbler, but it drives each contributor to craft a better product and create a more dazzling act.

Stepping aside from the eat-or-be-eaten perspective of competition, I also want to explore how competition helps divide and distribute the work of a community. Our skills extend far beyond those initial judgments of who is the most skilled or sexiest hooper. I find myself thinking about our meet-up last weekend, because in the days before I was so preoccupied with how I would measure up to the folks I met. However once I got there I realized being non-competitive is easier in practice than in my head. Watching hoopers drift in and out of camp I really glimpsed our diversity. Some gals are always hooping, others pick up the hoop for short bursts. Some know lots of tricks, others make waist hooping a fascinating dance. Outside the circle I met folks who organize, folks who share their booze, folks who teach, and folks who can identify the rocks we find along the creek bed.

All those unique skills strengthen and enrich our community. Competition gives us each the space and opportunity to use our energy where it is needed most, doing work we do best. As a community we must continue to be mindful that competition doesn’t create a mire or envy or elitism and I believe acknowledging competition, rather than denying it, is an important first step.

Hooping in my Community

2009-06-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

Last week I was interviewd by Sarah Nail for our local newspaper "The Sedalia Democrat" I've embedded the video they created. The article was very nice, despite a few errors. For those interested in making your own hoops, you'll need to find 3/4 in. tubing NOT 3 1/4 inch.

Alter Ego

2009-06-16T18:07:00.000-05:00

Handling books all day is nice, but the best part of working at the library is playing dress-up. My look is typically a fusion of hippie and house-wife, so wearing button-up shirts is a real treat. It feels a little sneaky to look professional, when there are mix-matched socks hiding under the cuffs of my new slacks. The first morning I dressed for work my daughter announced, “I love your costume, mommy!” She knows Mommy's a quiet library assistant by day and a twirly ninja by night.

The Alphabet

2009-06-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

"Because it's time to stop babbling the alphabet and to start speaking in complete, poetic sentences ( choreographically speaking)." -Shimarella

Angled hooping
Barrel roll
Continuous step-through
Duck in
Eagle roll
Flight time
Good ol’ waist hooping
Helicopter
Isolations
Jump-in
Kick start
Leg hooping
Matrix
Ninja toss
Overhead turn
Pizza toss
Quick break
Rising sun
Shoulder pop
Threading the needle
Union hooping
Vortex
Weave
aXis switch
Y
Z

Thanks to Lulu Hoop and Safire for helping fill some of the blank

Introduction to Hooping

2009-06-11T09:25:00.000-05:00

Hooping is a performance art that combines dance, yoga, and tricks performed with the hoop. Most hoopers share a common "alphabet" of tricks and techniques used to compose poems, songs, and goofy limericks of motion and joy. Most importantly and perhaps most accurately, hooping is fun! The following video is a recording of the hoop dance demonstration I shared with my public speaking class at State Fair Community College.

Hoop Dance Demonstration Project from Heather Hughes on Vimeo.

Hoop Love!

2009-06-07T08:57:00.000-05:00

Live Handmade

2008-11-06T17:40:00.000-06:00

I think there are parallel currents reshaping and redefining American life. On one hand, corporations and government continue to formalize and commercialize our lives. On the other hand, the green and handmade movements highlight our interest in recognizing a social interconnectedness independent of big business.

With the stock market heaving and the government scooping up broken financial institutions, I think we are definitely looking at increased government control of the economy. Additionally, the G-8 and other global powers are already talking about banding together to combat the global economic crisis. If there’s one thing that increases government power quickly and mercilessly, it’s a crisis. Just look how the Patriot Act expanded executive power, trampled civil rights, and justified the discrimination and detention of Muslims. On a more individual level, I think the shaky economy will force more families to choose inexpensive, corporate businesses like Wal-Mart instead of alternative markets. Many families who would rather buy organic tomatoes from the farmer’s market simply don’t have the extra 2 dollars.

At the same time, for the very same reasons, I think some individual and families are trying to step away from big box stores and commercialization. Christmas is coming and our bank account is dry. I realized over the summer that times would be hard, so I bought gifts for my kids during garage sale season and then purchased handmade puzzles. With the national economy in a messy transformation, I feel it’s important to send the message that I support independent artists and craftspeople, not big business and the exploitation of underpaid workers. The economy is also a reminder of how dangerous it is to spend unwisely and get into debt. Therefore I hope more families choose to focus less on buying, and more on making, recycling, and trading for wonderful, meaningful gifts.

The Wars America Forgot

2008-11-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

As the stock market lurched down the morning after Election Day, most Americans were more worried about our economy than our wars. Exit polls show that only 1 in 10 voters considered Iraq an important election issue.

Archive - Soul Song

2008-09-29T11:45:00.000-05:00

I sing of soul coiled,
At the root of my spine,
Wrapped in red veils,
Kundalini, the bride.

I sing of soul rising,
Amber as flame,
Dancing, sweet Lakshmi:
I sing in her name.

I sing of soul changing,
Even when still,
I sing yellow birds,
On a cracked windowsill.

I sing of soul patterns,
In word-tangled art,
I sing the green maze,
Of hands and of heart.

I sing a soul river,
That flows from my throat,
In silence, reflected,
One timeless, blue note.

I sing of soul amethyst,
The luminous mind,
I unfurl my soul,
and sing what I find.

Mid Missouri Pagan Pride

2008-09-28T21:57:00.000-05:00

Today Ozark Avalon Church of Nature and Hearthfires of Columbia hosted a Mid Missouri Pagan Pride gathering. Peace Park was beautiful and the day flawlessly bright. We were lucky enough to have our vending space beneath a tree, who offered us shade and a continual swirl of green-yellow autumn leaves.

Today was a big step for Tangled Macrame, so I would like to thank everyone who visited my shop, especially those who took home hemp-y treasures. Thanks to Taz and Alex for encouraging me to take out the space. Thanks to the pirate crew on our left...see you all at Bacchanalia!

Yummy...

2008-09-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

The macrobiotic diet combines vegetarianism with Zen Buddhism to create meals that balance the body and spirit. Foods are characterized as yin (cold, sweet) or yang (spicy, salty), then paired within recipes. Individual dishes balance one another as part of a seasonal menu of local, organically grown foods. Brown and water form the high fiber core of the diet, accompanied by sautéed veggies and seaweed. Fatty meats, alcohol, refined sugars, dairy, and tropic fruit are all restricted. In addition to restricting food choices, the macrobiotic diet reminds people to eat slowly and thoughtfully.

I’m thinking apple bread and pumpkin pie, but this is close as these recipies go…

CousCous Cake with Vanilla Sauce
6 cups apple juice
2 pinches of sea salt
1/2 package agar flakes
2 cups CousCous
3 TBS rice syrup
2 TBS almond butter
zest and juice from one orange
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, toasted in the oven, skins rubbed off and cut into pieces.

1. Bring the apple juice and salt to a boil.
2. Add the agar flakes and cook on low with the lid off for 5 minutes until flakes dissolve.
3. Add the CousCous and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Stir in the rice syrup, almond butter, orange zest and juice and toasted chopped hazelnuts.
5. Pour into cake pan and let set.

Vanilla sauce
2 cups apple juice
pinch of sea salt
2 TB rice syrup
1 TB almond butter
2 TB kuzu diluted in 1/4 cup cold water
dash vanilla, dash nutmeg , dash cinnamon
fresh orange

1. Bring the apple juice, salt, rice syrup and almond butter to a boil.
2. Stir in the diluted kuzu and simmer for 1 minute.
3. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon.
4. Serve on Cous Cous Cake and garnish with thinly sliced pie-shaped pieces of fresh orange.

Autumn Recipes
Macriobiotic Diet Overview

This Body, This Body Holding Me

2008-09-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

Women have bodies that are graceful as a maple sapling, bodies that are round and sweet as an apple. Don’t ask your body how much it weighs; ask your body how well it lives. Can you pick up a fallen child? Can you feel pleasure? Can you laugh? If your body does the things you want to do, if it carries you through your day, then it’s good enough.

The health and beauty industry can shove its annual $50 billion up its air brushed butt.

2008-06-01T10:07:00.001-05:00

First Journey

2008-06-01T10:06:00.001-05:00

After his descent into the mysteries of death, the hero emerges with new insight and knowledge. Both Odysseus and Aeneas learn, through observation and direct dialogue, the fate of souls once mortal life ends. However, Aeneas discovers an afterlife that promises transformation, in contrast to the grey monotony found by Odysseus.

In the Odyssey the dead are a “blurred and breathless” procession of heroes and queens, wandering aimlessly until empowered to speak by sacrificial blood. Achilles describes their hopelessness. “Better to break sod as a farm hand for some poor country man, on iron rations, than lord it over the exhausted dead” (XI, 544-546). The irony of these words, coming from a man he once urged toward glorious death in battle, was not lost on Odysseus. Nearby Tantalos reaches eternally for water he can never reach, a mirror of Achilles who also longs for unobtainable release. Thus confronted by the tragic similarities between the fate of heroes and sinners, Odysseus emerges from the Underworld terrified, but determined to manifest Teiresias’ prophecy of peaceful death at the hands of age.

Virgil’s epic, by contrast, presents a more diverse Afterlife, one profoundly affected by how a person lived and the manner of his death. Here the unburied are trapped on one side of the Styx, while suicides, heroes, and the damned are sorted into specified regions. The most striking difference between the two realms, however, is explained by Anchises. “For some the stain of wrong is washed by floods or burned away by fire. We suffer each his own shade” (VI, 602-604). In other words, death isn’t the end. In time, the soul is transformed into a new human incarnation or ascends into heaven, based on his character.

Aeneas emerges determined and enlightened, more aware of his role as Founder and as a spiritual work in progress. This knowledge is a kind of compensation for the fact he will die pitifully, before his task is complete. Odysseus, on the other hand, received no reassurance, only an affirmation of the preciousness of mortal life and his desire to return to those he loves.

Spaces Between

2008-05-06T11:15:00.001-05:00

I sit on the bank of a rippling creek, watching the long arms of a sycamore sway. This place feels holy to me. Of course it is beautiful, most of nature is, but its beauty is heightened by the sight of a Macy’s parking lot only a few yards away.

I’m in Joplin, at the Southern Missouri State College campus, where my husband is having dental work done. Instead of waiting, I decided to walk, to follow the small campus “nature trail”, while chattering to a friend on the cell phone. He was singing about his trip to San Francisco, where he and a tribe of Deadheads are seeing Phil Lesh perform a final concert at the Warhouse Theatre. The jealously was enough to kill me, until the trail intersected a gravel road and bright, rippling water carried my frustration away.

I followed the water along another path, till the old stone-work drainage canal gave way to a rocky creek bank. The sight took my breath away as I stood with wilderness over one shoulder and urban sprawl behind the other. Bright purple flowers peeked up from the mud. They inspired me to pull a Wal-Mart bag from the sycamore roots and start picking up trash. Such a magical place deserves a little love, and the cleaning was my exchange for the two fossil stones the water gifted me.

I met an old man down by the water. He told me he worked for the campus, though I still clutched my phone and worried he was some lunatic fishing for lake chub and telling strange girls about the creek’s mineral deposits just to disguise his terrible intentions. Whatever they were, he never acted on them. He left, carrying a bucket of chub, and left me sitting on the bank, holding a stone in both hands, and gazing about across the rippling water.

Healing Rituals

2008-05-02T11:54:00.000-05:00

Though the techniques and attitudes of the Navajo shaman and the typical American physician differ greatly, both traditions are steeped in ritual and personify unique cultural beliefs about health, healing, and illness. By examining the two systems side by side I hope to illustrate how they can coexist and how together they work to meet the diverse needs of American medical patients.

In 2000 about 11.6 million people were employed as nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and in a multitude of other professions associated with the 1.3 trillion dollar a year medical industry (Jonas 7-8). Given these numbers, generalizations about a physician’s philosophy are difficult to make. Modern healers are as diverse as their patients. However, the Medical Practice Act of New York State testifies that, “the practice of the profession of medicine is…diagnosing, treating, operating or prescribing for any human disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical condition” (Jonas 28). This definition illustrates the primary focus of the American physician on the treatment of symptoms. There is no mention of the patient or of preventive care. Instead, the Act offers a list of human frailties and the skills a physician possess to cure them.

The Navajo healer’s world-view, by contrast, is one of “good hope”, one that connects land and its inhabitants in a timeless, spiritual reality. Illness is perceived as the price of breaking natural laws. Therefore the shaman, gifted his or her healing powers by holy spirits, must treat the cause, not the symptom of illness. Rituals are used to bring a patient back into alignment with their planet, community, and spiritual and physical self. In the sand painting ritual, the chanting shaman creates an image whose shape and colors are used to interpret the patient’s illness (Spector 219-221).

Lori Arviso Alvord, a Navajo surgeon and teacher at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, remembers the winter night an entire tribe danced and chanted for an ill woman. She explains that, "The latest breakthroughs in research and methodology are stunning achievements and should be recognized as such, but along the way we have forgotten some of the things that heal us best--our relationships, how we live our lives, our feelings of wholeness and belonging" (Mangan A12). For Alvord and her shamanic predecessors healing is a natural, continual process, and one that is compatible with modern medicine.

In fact modern medicine possesses many of the same characteristics as native traditions. M.L. Elks of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta draws this thoughtful analogy between the work of the physician and that of the shamanic healer:

Traditional healers often have required the patient to confess misdeeds, wear special garments, and perform certain tasks, while the healer might touch the patient with stylized gestures or interpret various physical signs. In modern medicine, the doctor takes the patient's history, or "confession." During an examination, the patient wears a paper drape, and the doctor often touches the patient's body with a stethoscope and other instruments. Later, the doctor interprets the results of laboratory tests and requires the patient to take certain actions, such as exercising, dieting, or swallowing pills.

The paradox of modern medicine is that the work of the physician is not considered sacred, but his or her decisions are still sacrosanct and wrapped in ritualistic mystery. Patients repeat the physician’s diagnosis to friends and family, often without fully understanding their meaning. The patient begins taking medications with unpronounceable names, sometimes without even seeing the prescription.

Patients, more than physicians, seem to recognize the similarities between modern and ancient medicine and understand the need to unify the two traditions in a healer who is skilled in treating disease, but also sensitive to spiritual and emotional needs. According to a study conducted by David Larson, M.D, president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research, nearly forty percent of the population wishes their doctor would pray with them, and sixty percent are interested in discussing their spirituality with their doctor (Marty). It seems clear that spirituality connectivity is an important issue for patients and one that should not continue to be neglected.

The intuitive rituals of the Navajo shaman, and other faith-based healing traditions, are a reminder that there is more to illness than its physical side effects and more to the healer than certification or superior knowledge. Treatment is an exchange between patient and physician and it takes place within a shared reality, shaped by cultural tradition and world view. Though the modern American medical system has focused primarily on the tradition of science, ritualistic practices still exist and patients still desire to have their spiritual needs recognized. The shift toward a more pluralistic health care system is to acknowledge the diverse and ever changing needs of patients and to begin the complex work of healing.

Elks, M.L. “The Key Role of Ritual in Modern Medicine.” Bulletin. Aug 1998. 24 Apr
2007. http://www.parkridgecenter.org/Page117.html.

Jonas, Steven. An Introduction to the U.S. Health Care System. New York: Springer
Publishing, 2003.

Mangan, Katherine S. “Enlisting the Spirit in Medical Treatment.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 45:42 (1999): A12.

Marty, Martin E. “Is Anybody Out There Listening?” Bulletin. Nov 1997. 24 Apr
2007. http://www.parkridgecenter.org/Page449.html.

Spector, Rachel E. Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness. Stamford: Appleton & Lange, 1996.

Summertime...

2008-04-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

George Gershwin wrote his American folk opera "Porgy and Bess" in 1935. You may recognize "Summertime" as performed by Janice Joplin or catch bits of Gershwin's lyrics in Sublime's song of the same name. In celebration of warm weather and babies with good lookin' mamas, here's a delightful animation set to the sorrowful, soulful voice of Billie Holiday.

The cat who made this video's from the Netherlands...his website isn't in English, but here's the link.

http://amosdepamos.hyves.nl/

We are sisters...

2008-04-19T00:20:00.000-05:00

We are sisters, of the goddess,
we are keepers, of the flame,
we are sisters,in a circle,
and we sing, to this flame.

We are sisters of the maiden,
dancing, drunken in the rain.
We are sisters of the maiden,
this I sing, in Kore's name.

We are sisters of the goddess,
we are keepers of the flame,
we are sisters, in a circle,
and we sing, the soul is flame.

We are sisters, of the mother,
whose child, mid-stanza, wakes again.
We are sisters, of the mother,
this I sing, in Hera's name.

We are sisters, of the goddess,
we are keepers of the flame,
we are sisters, of the wise crone,
who walks alone, in dark and rain.

A Poem by Jelaluddin Rumi

2008-04-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what I have to say.

From any embryo, whose nourishment comes from the blood,
Move to any infant drinking milk,
To a child on solid food,
To a searcher after wisdom,
To a hunter of more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo,
You might say, “The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheat fields and mountain passes,
And orchards in blood.

At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
The beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.”

You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays copped up
In the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.
There is no “other world.”
I only know what I’ve experienced.
You must be hallucinating.

hmm....

2008-04-15T23:31:00.000-05:00

I feel like this flower today...kind of grey.

Local Love

2008-04-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

I love to drive the old, rambling highways north of Sedalia and see the fields spread like a patchwork quilt across the earth.

Goddess Gathering

2008-04-14T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Goddess wears many faces, some of whom I met last weekend at the Triple Goddess Gathering. I saw the bright maiden Kore in newborn leaves and the tribe of young women who invited me to their fire. We chanted and chattered and in the middle of the night organized ourselves enough to move my tent into their village.

As we passed the magic mirror around our Circle, I saw Demeter gazing back at me. I am the mother of two beautiful children and a multitude of knotty hempen creations. My friend Waterlilly is the mother of this trio of polymer deities.

There is a grandmother dragon who sleeps in a cave at the foot of Cumberland Hill. I wandered down to visit her after closing ritual and returned to see Rose, Sorshia, and Cat sitting around the fire like the Norms sitting beneath the Tree of Life. These three women always make me feel welcome at Ozark Avalon…and sometimes humble, because my voice will never carry like Rose’s and my scrambled eggs are never as fluffy as Soshia’s. One day…

Maiden, Mother, Crone So Wise

2008-03-30T00:24:00.000-05:00

I thank these women of the Earthpath Artisans:

Full Moon at Ozark Avalon

2008-03-28T09:05:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend our family traveled to Ozark Avalon Church of Nature, where Abigail met the "Star Bunny" and Azurehawk and I hosted a planting ritual. Typical of Missouri, we celebrated spring, then saw snow swirling the next day.

Vernal Equinox

2008-03-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

Welcome spring with fire, friends, and a chihuahua wearing pajamas!

We had a wonderful night with our good friend. Tim and I sang while Chris played guitar. Everyone marveled at the luminous moon and the thin whisps of clouds drifting past. Our fire was bright, crawling with fire fairies who swirled in the gusting wind of spring. Good times, yes, good times...

Ostara

2008-03-19T16:41:00.000-05:00

What will you grow in Earth's garden this spring?
What song will you join with the sparrow to sing?

Hebrides Overture

2008-03-16T21:45:00.000-05:00

Felix Mendelssohn took a grand tour of Europe in his twenties and visited all the continent’s great cultural centers. However, it was the lonely island of Staffa, off the coast of Scotland that was the inspiration for his melodic Hebrides Overture. In the Overture Mendelssohn entwines two themes: one expressing the majestic beauty of Fingal’s Cave and one reminiscent of the rolling sea. He created the first theme that very day and later wrote Fanny, "In order to make you understand how extraordinary The Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there.” (http://www.orlandophil.org/downloads/program-notes/2006-07/opo-prog-notes-pac1.pdf) Listening to Hebrides Overture the listener is transported to a land of serene beauty, as honored by a man who declared, “It is in pictures, ruins, and natural surroundings that I find the most music.”

From Felix's 1827 letter to his sister Fanny

Listen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0jxiUq9c4k&feature=related

Earth Mother

2008-03-15T12:06:00.000-05:00

Thou art goddess,
thou art the womb of the world.

I walk with the goddess,
I walk with the trees,
though my belly's round with child,
I walk with ease.

Strong as a goddess,
wise as the trees,
blessed is the child,
who walks with me.

Congratulations Spiritmama!
Congratulations Rachel!

Crocus

2008-03-14T07:07:00.000-05:00

Crocus wears a yellow gown, while the world still sleeps in winter brown.

Bird Haunt

2008-03-13T17:43:00.000-05:00

Just south of Hughesville is an old, decaying house. It looks like a ghost haunt, but the only spirits I met there were birds. They flitted among the brown grass as I crossed the sun-set field. In the brightness of early evening I wondered, “Why is this place empty? How many neighborhood kids have lingered on these broken steps, dreaming ghosts and double-dares?” The instant I crossed the threshold the old house groaned. Ten dozen sparrows leaped into the air, shouting among the bare rafters. I stood a moment as silence returned, gazing at the stripped wood through my camera lens. Before I could capture images of my brave trespass into forgotten space, the camera beeped once and the battery died. I turned slowly back toward the bright doorway and the song-filled fields beyond. The house moaned a second time, like an old woman asking one last moment of companionship before nightfall.

..take a pool full of water to cool him down

2008-03-11T20:32:00.001-05:00

When Coyote caught her tail on fire, she fled the city for the hills. Dragon Man followed, swallowing up the ash, and all the world went still. Nothing grew for a long time in the city or in the hills. Coyote waited, nursing her burns, until spring. Then she found a lonely puddle and asked her to grow a seed to two. Soon there was green on the hills and folks walking through the tall grass. Nothing grew in the city. Only Dragonman walks there now.

You're it...

2008-03-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

Hedgewitch tagged me yesterday afternoon, so here we go. Seven facts, seven rules, and seven more souls in the game. Haha!

Seven Facts:

1. I’m wearing my tie-dye bandanna today because I haven’t brushed my hair
2. I replaced pancakes with yogurt for family breakfast so that I can blog in the mornings
3. I’m a Capricorn rising with my sun in Sagittarius and moon in Scorpio
4. My favorite author is Ursula K. LeGuin
5. My favorite movies are “American Beauty” and the original “Star Wars” trilogy
6. I love veggies raw, but not cooked
7. My husband and I married at a music festival while tripping mescaline

Seven Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Seven-ish Victims:
Rainbow Mom
Liz
Inky Spider
Linden Tree Photography

there's a dragons with matches loose on the town...

2008-03-10T18:02:00.000-05:00

Many folk tales associate the Maiden with apples. Snow White falls asleep with one crisp bite; the golden beauty of “Silver Hands” is betrothed to the Devil as she sweeps beneath her father's apple tree. So it was that a fallen branch beneath the old neighbor apple tree inspired me to honor the newborn spring with a blaze.

The family will light the season’s first burn tonight. I hope Abby is still awake, because she was a joy as we collected firewood. She road down in the storage area of the stroller while I pilled the wood into the seat.

Hope you enjoy these photos of the old dragon-man who lives in our fire ring. Hopefully we'll see him open his wings tonight.

Bright Daughter

2008-03-08T22:02:00.001-06:00

Yippee!

2008-03-06T07:08:00.000-06:00

Had a wonderful time doodling last night..and turning my doodles into something useful. I've been contemplating ways to increase the perceived value of my jewelry and to make it looks great on display. I think these charming little tags will do both those things. What do you think?

The Gaian Conspiracy

2008-02-25T23:08:00.000-06:00

I am a tree, in a seed, in the earth,
I am a river, I flow through the earth,
I am a thought in the mind of this planet,
I am a dream in the mind of the goddess.

Hey ya'na hey, weave away,
we are all a part of this,
hey ya'na hey, find a way,
the song returns my soul to this.

I am a tree, in a seed, in the earth,
Winter is sleeping, dreaming rebirth,
I am of flesh, giving form to the spirit,
I share this song, that the goddess may hear it.

Hey'ya hey, weave away,
we are all a part of this,
hey ya'na hey, find a way,
this song connects my soul to bliss.

Two Sides of Winter

2008-02-25T22:55:00.000-06:00

The winter solstice divides the year and divides the winter as well. On the far side of the axis is winter dark and on this side is the secret spring. Winter dark is time for dreaming who to be, whereas secret spring is the root-work that allows these dreams to manifest.

When most people speak of winter they describe a day like today. Snow fell in the early morning, then puddles upon puddles of rain. The yard is a bog of mud and wet leaves. Everyone thinks its cold, but when I put my eye to the ground, I discovered the earth preparing for warm days. Bright tiny shoots gazed back from the water. They are the children of secret spring

Life begins underground. Before the crocus lifts his head, before the birds choose their mates, the seeds germinate. They send their roots down through the warming, wet February soil, protected from nighttime frost by the last leaves of autumn.

In secret spring the sky is a million shades of grey. The clouds are heavy, but moving fast. The geese complain as they drift among the clouds, buoyed up by the same hurrying wind. In a few weeks the birds will make their long flights back north and end their winter pilgrimage. They gather in massive flocks, chattering and pecking the first green food of the season.

Scientists believe that migrating creatures react to the changing angle of the sun, not the weather, as was once thought. In winter the sun travels south and lingers, pale and solitary, at the horizon while the earth turns cold. Only humans seem unaware of the change. We roar across a sentinel planet with the help of our heaters and gas guzzling machines. Meanwhile, bear sleeps and monarchs gather by the drowsy thousands in the hilltop forests of Sierra Chincua. In February the butterflies will follow the geese north, lay their larva on milkweed pods, and die.

Back in Missouri, I enjoy winter dark with a walk beneath the cold night moon. The earth is still and frozen solid; the air is sharp and clear as glass. My thoughts follow my feet across the glittering reality as my dog and I follow the moon. I marvel at the shape of the naked trees that, without their leaves, appear like tall, patient men waiting in the snow. This is the winter everyone recognizes. It’s the season of three hundred dollar electric bills and family celebrations, of snow and silence.

If I were to mark winter dark on a calendar, I think it would begin in November. The ancient Celts believed that the boundary between life and death was thin this time of year. Romantically, the belief invokes thoughts of fireside conversations with the family ghost. In reality, cold nights and hunger drew many across the Veil unwilling. On the night of the winter solstice our ancestors kept vigil, praying for the sun to return. Different cultures gave the sun different names, but even modern Christmas remembers the awe inspiring birth of light from darkness with song and prayers.

However, by January the sun has visibly begun his journey home. The seeds begin their underground work and modern humans calm down long enough to file their taxes and pack up the Christmas tree. Secret spring marks the weeks between darkness and the vernal equinox and contains the ancient festival of Imbolc. This early-spring holiday celebrates the birth of season’s first lambs and calves. It also acknowledges the return of the earth as a maiden goddess. The ancient Celts dedicated these days to the goddess Brigid and medieval Catholics held a feast to honor the purification of the Virgin Mary.

Today, few people celebrate the green touch of secret spring or experience the clarity of winter dark. Both seasons are beautiful, but cold. They last only a handful of weeks and tend to blur into a conglomerate season called sweater weather. Their details are microscopic, like the structure of a snowflake or the root of a newborn seed, too small to notice when I’m in a hurry. Yet when I slow down I see secret spring as the promise of color and tiny life stirring underground. Winter dark is a moment rest as the seeds and butterflies wait the time of rebirth. Both are a gift to those who observe the journey of the sun and the metamorphosis of the earth through her many seasons.

Featured Artist: Beadfreaky

2008-02-23T11:18:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself: your interests, family, ect : I have a big family, 5 kids, and I think that's one reason I love goddesses so much. They symbolize all that is important in Mothering, which is something I really need to reaffirm to myself. I also have always loved making things. Ceramics is something I've been doing for about 15 years. I also love to paint and am planning on learning glass.

Can you describe your studio/work area? Right now it's just half of a two car garage :) My work doesn't really require much space. I have a small electric kiln for the bisque firings and for the porcelain beads. I usually just use one table to work at, whether I am formimg beads, making plaster stamps, cleaning pieces, or applying glazes. I just clean up in between :)

Tell us about the creative process. What inspires you and how do you turn those inspirations into art? I am simply drawn to ancient symbols. I feel they represent all that is missing in modern life: our connection to nature, our bodies, our families, the cycle of the seasons. Sometimes I make a model of what I want and then make a plaster mold. Other times I carve into plaster to make a stamp. I also like to use found objects and textures for a more abstract, less representational piece.

What do you enjoy most about crafting/creating? For me the most fun is the firing process. I love taking a item made of clay and changing it through the heat of the fire. Wheter it is in the pit outside with salt, copper, and leaves or in the kiln with glazes, the transformation is magical.

What inspired you to fire pendants in your backyard instead of a traditional kiln?
About 15 years ago, I had a friend who worked with pit-firing. At the time I lived near the Pacific Ocean, and it was wonderful to do the firings by the ocean. Adding seaweed was a great way to get cool salt effects. I was making small pendants and beads, and they seemed perfect for pit firing, actually much easier, because breakage due to thermal shock is less likely with the smaller pieces. The random, stone-like effects were a perfect fit with the natural subjects of the beads.

Why do you think ancient symbols, like the labyrinth and Kokopelli, continue to speak to people today? Well as much as we like to pretend that we are not part of nature, we are natural beings who are dependent on and affected by nature. We know that deep inside, and that awareness attracts us to these symbols.

Well... I really love the moon goddess in my avatar because she is such a big, bold goddess. I also like the moon reference in that piece. She looks a bit like me :) which also endears her to me.

Visit beadfreaky's Etsy store

Pattern of a Goddess

2008-02-18T12:29:00.000-06:00

Some patterns are life-patterns; some patterns live in our hands. This pattern was inspired by the goddess who inhabits its center and the rest of me had to learn the knots as it unfolded. That makes for a long night hunched over 20 yards of hemp, tying and retying knots, trying to keep faith that the pattern exists even when I can’t see it.

The beautiful goddess who inspired this design was crafted by beadfreaky, an artist I met through Etsy. Her pendants speak of the earth’s raw power, a power that sleeps within women, even today. In a world dominated by stick thin models with haughty expressions, beadfreaky recreates the goddesses who watched over our ancestors as they gathered, planted, and birthed.

I’m honestly still unsure of the name of this goddess. The square, volcanic beads told me she is Pele, but the weather is singing the name of Brigid. I know she is the heath/fire goddess. What do you think?

Show, Arlo

2008-02-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

Blogsphere

2008-02-16T14:02:00.000-06:00

Today I’m singing connections
And the shape of a blog, like a sphere.
Today I decided to wander, type, listen, and hear.
If you, like the mind, choose to wander,
And read what I'm writing while here,
Then down with that strange, thirsty empire,
Singing commercials into my ear.

(1st published under the title "qassai" because the chaos that site created at Etsy inspired me to contemplate the power of blog advertising. However, I worried that qassai would be interpreted as the "strange empire" when I was actually refering to the octopus of consumerism)

Winter to Spring (a meditation)

2008-02-16T10:46:00.000-06:00

The energy around our house is strange this month. Both my husband and I are busy, busy with our projects. He’s building a Playstation 2 mod and I’m crafting like mad, working on this blog, and immersing myself in a number of on-line networking endeavors…in addition to school and raising children. I’m happy and proud of my work, but beneath this feeling of well being is a layer of tension that explodes into directionless anger or drops into despair when things go wrong.

I feel the specter of self doubt warning me to beware beginning so many projects at once. He argues that I’m notorious for abandoning my work, not to be trusted. Yet I feel that’s changing. Maybe I say that because of the moon or the momentary prosperity granted by a sizable tax refund. Maybe it’s true.

I look back at the woman of last winter. She and her husband were at war over feelings neither fully understood. She took off her wedding ring and vowed to make a new life for herself, only to discover herself pregnant with a second child. She cried a lot that winter and sketched sad-eyed woman with round bellies, gazing thoughtfully into space. She constructed a belief system that allowed her to place all the blame for sadness and wrongdoings on someone else. “Reality is made of a multitude of perspectives,” she told herself, “Some people have more passionate perspectives than others. These domineering, strong willed people overpower the stories of passive people like me. Passive people are bullied into living lives that fulfill the stories of others instead of their own.”

So she lived a story that she told herself belonged to someone else, only to realize a year later that she is the one who wrote the tale of mix-matches realities. Winter melted into spring and she found herself a tiny place among the stone circles up top Cumberland Church Hill where the old witches live. She asked the Hill how a woman might best live. She asked the Hill how to balance Motherhood with Self, Wife with Woman, and the Hill answered her with wind moving among the dappled sycamore branches.

I don’t fully understand how the thoughts of last winter and my thoughts on today connect, other than an observation of February. February is Brigit’s month and tells the story of secret spring.

I’ll tell you a story Brigit told me...tomorrow.

Switch Knot Tutorial

2008-02-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

Today we’re tying a switch knot. This exotic looking knot is it’s really just the space between two square knots…with a twist.

To tie this knot you need to be working with an even number of cords, usually four.Tie a square knot with two fillers and two knotting cords.

As you pull your knotters to the middle make sure they lay over the original fillers. This is important, because it wraps one set of cords around the other, holding them in place.

Now bring the original fillers, which are now the knotters, around and leave a little space before tying a second square knot. You should have a groovy hourglass shape where the cords crossed one another.

Since a switch knot has open space it has a tendency to slide. I usually clusters of 2-4 square knots for every 2 switches to give the design more stability.

You can also adjust the length of the switch by tugging the knotting cords as you make the first half of the square knot. The second half holds knot in place. You can even out the hourglass by tugging at the filler cords.

If you add beads and tie a few-dozen more knots you'll have created your own unique piece of jewelry.

Crafty Connections

2008-02-12T18:26:00.000-06:00

These days have been wild, crafty days. I knotted a chakra necklace for Rainbowmom, one of the Earthpath Artisans on Etsy. She’s the first to take advantage of my offer to resize/customize designs. It really surprises me how many customers order without asking questions or even taking the time to say hello. In my mind crafting is about connections. I love knowing where a design is traveling. I love knowing that its future owner is mindfully interested in receiving the perfect item.

As both a maker and buyer of handmade crafts, I hope that one day that desire for personal connections will save our culture from Wal-Mart. It also inspired me to seek out other artists to feature on this blog. Next week I will be sharing an interview with the woman who created the goddess pendants featured in my ritual photographs.

Hamsa Healing Hands: by Rainbowmom

Beadfreaky's Shop on Etsy

Conversation with a Box

2008-02-10T12:01:00.000-06:00

I discovered a box among the rules of English composition. The lid is a proclamation of purpose, the thesis. He gives his companions direction and structure. Around him are clustered of loyal trio of supporting details and inevitable, persuasive conclusion. They form the sides and bottom of the box.

This box allows me to focus my mind. It keeps me from rambling from topic to topic. Since today it has no content, other than an observation of its own existence, the box feels awkward and strange. It’s accustomed to displaying the best of others, not being described itself.

“Give me a research paper and I’ll show you my strengths,” the box told me. “I’ll help you compare Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, but please don’t analyze me!” For a box, this one is rather neurotic, a type-A personality. It kept begging me to draw an outline, but I refused.

“Today,” I explained, “I’m meditating on you, so stop doing your work and be yourself.” I forgot that a box made of rules is defined by its work. Like a verb, its boring while being; it would rather do and that is why I’m packed this box-thought up and shared it with you. It isn’t very talkative, but the lid will declare its purpose, “I discovered a box among the rules of English composition”.

Bead Blessing Ritual

2008-02-09T09:18:00.000-06:00

Macramé is magical and beads collect energy. Therefore a witch must periodically cleanse and bless her collection. Last night I arranged my bead boxes, hemp, crystals, pendants, necklaces, and pouches to form an altar. Around this glittering, candlelight chaos, I cast circle and chanted. A simple ritual, yes, but the best kind, because it inspired and captured a unique moment, independent of moon phases and coven schedules. It distilled an instant of my creative life, which in my reality, is the most powerful cycle of all.

Like the moon, creativity waxes and wanes. Like the sun it creates its own light, illuminating the darkest corners of our being. The creative process allows me to transform raw emotion into something beautiful…or strange. Whatever forms the Art takes; it’s concrete and conceivable and helps me understand the feelings that inspired it.

I think that’s why the work of a witch is called the Craft of the Wise. Magick is a unique, powerful Art, but all crafts are wise and magical. Acknowledging the connection between the work of my hands and the power of the Divine was the heart of last night’s ritual.